VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Christchurch or Petra?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Christchurch for

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Christchurch’s own page.

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Christchurch 38, Petra 5: Christchurch leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Petra 22: Christchurch leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Petra 85: Petra leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Petra 5: Christchurch leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Petra 78: Christchurch leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Petra 30: Christchurch leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Petra 25: Christchurch leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Petra 25: Christchurch leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Petra 18: Christchurch leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Petra 45: Petra leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Petra 10: Christchurch leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Petra 28: Christchurch leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Petra.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Christchurch
Best match
46match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
ChristchurchPetra

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchPetra
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriArabic
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number111911
Elevation20 m850 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchPetra
City population383,200-
People per km²1,298-
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Christchurch or Petra somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.