Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.
Galle 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 Galle for
- beaches
- wellness
- food and drink
What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’s own page.
Choose Petra for
- culture and sights
- nature and the outdoors
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galle and Petra.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Galle in July
Petra in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.
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. Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Galle | Petra |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Tamil, Sinhala | Arabic |
| Currency | Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) | Jordanian Dinar (JOD) |
| Sockets | GM230 V, 50 Hz | BCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 | UTC+3 |
| Emergency number | Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110 | 911 |
| Elevation | 0 m | 850 m |
| Main airport | Bandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations | King Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations |
By the numbers
| Measure | Galle | Petra |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 93,118 | - |
| Museums within 10 km | 2 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galle or Petra somewhere new.