VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Helsinki 28, Petra 5: Helsinki leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Petra 22: Helsinki leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Petra 85: Petra leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Petra 5: Helsinki leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Petra 78: Petra leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Petra 30: Helsinki leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Petra 25: Helsinki leads by 51 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Petra 25: Helsinki leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Petra 18: Helsinki leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Petra 45: Petra leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Petra 10: Helsinki leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Petra 28: Helsinki leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Petra.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiPetra

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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiPetra
Official languageFinnish, SwedishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation17 m850 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiPetra
City population694,392-
People per km²3,239-
Museums within 10 km742
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Helsinki 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.