VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

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

Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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.

Beaches & swimming. Guadalajara and Petra are level on 5.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Petra 22: Guadalajara leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Petra 85: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Petra 5: Guadalajara leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Petra 78: Petra leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Petra 30: Guadalajara leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Petra 25: Guadalajara leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Petra 25: Guadalajara leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Petra 18: Guadalajara leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Petra 45: Guadalajara leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Petra 10: Guadalajara leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Petra 28: Guadalajara leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Petra.

Your match

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

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Petra
31match

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.

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GuadalajaraPetra

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara 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. Guadalajara: 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

MeasureGuadalajaraPetra
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,536 m850 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraPetra
City population1,385,621-
People per km²9,556-
Museums within 10 km172
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 Guadalajara or Petra somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.