VacationSelector
The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
GenevaThe Jet d'Eau and a lake boat
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Geneva by Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Geneva 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 Geneva for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Petra for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Geneva 45, Petra 5: Geneva leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Geneva 55, Petra 22: Geneva leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Geneva 58, Petra 85: Petra leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Geneva 38, Petra 5: Geneva leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Geneva 82, Petra 78: Geneva leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Geneva 80, Petra 30: Geneva leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Geneva 57, Petra 25: Geneva leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Geneva 86, Petra 25: Geneva leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Geneva 68, Petra 18: Geneva leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Geneva 5, Petra 45: Petra leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Geneva 60, Petra 10: Geneva leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Geneva 55, Petra 28: Geneva leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Geneva and Petra.

Your match

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

Geneva
Best match
57match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on prices 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.

Geneva in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GenevaPetra

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. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenevaPetra
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshArabic
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation403 m850 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGenevaPetra
City population211,152-
People per km²13,280-
Museums within 10 km342
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.