VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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. Gold Coast 92, Petra 5: Gold Coast leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Petra 22: Gold Coast leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Petra 85: Petra leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Petra 5: Gold Coast leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Petra 78: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Petra 30: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Petra 25: Gold Coast leads by 64 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Petra 25: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Petra 18: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Petra 45: Petra leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Petra 10: Gold Coast leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Petra 28: Gold Coast leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast and Petra.

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gold CoastPetra

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastPetra
Official languageEnglishArabic
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+3
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m850 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastPetra
City population607,665-
People per km²433-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gold Coast 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.