VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • families

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. Fes and Petra are level on 5.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Petra 22: Fes leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Petra 85: Petra leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Petra 5: Fes leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Petra 78: Petra leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Petra 30: Fes leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Petra 25: Petra leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Petra 25: Fes leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Petra 18: Fes leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Petra 45: Fes leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Petra 10: Fes leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Petra 28: Fes leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Petra.

Your match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
FesPetra

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesPetra
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightArabic
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCE50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation408 m850 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFesPetra
City population1,167,842-
People per km²3,650-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.