VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Petra for

  • 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. Guilin 8, Petra 5: Guilin leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Petra 22: Guilin leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Petra 85: Petra leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Petra 5: Guilin leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Petra 78: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Petra 30: Guilin leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Petra 25: Guilin leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Petra 25: Guilin leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Petra 18: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Petra 45: Guilin leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Petra 10: Guilin leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Petra 28: Guilin leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Petra.

Your match

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

Guilin
Best match
44match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on 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.

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinPetra

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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinPetra
Official languagePutonghuaArabic
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation153 m850 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinPetra
City population4,931,137-
Museums within 10 km12
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 Guilin 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.