VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Hoi An’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. Hoi An 72, Petra 5: Hoi An leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Petra 22: Hoi An leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Petra 85: Petra leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Petra 5: Hoi An leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Petra 78: Petra leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Petra 30: Hoi An leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Petra 25: Hoi An leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Petra 25: Hoi An leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Petra 18: Hoi An leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Petra 45: Hoi An leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Petra 10: Hoi An leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Petra 28: Hoi An leads by 37 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An and Petra.

Your match

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

Hoi An
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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.

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnPetra

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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnPetra
Official languageVietnameseArabic
CurrencyDong (VND)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation13 m850 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnPetra
City population121,716-
Museums within 10 km52
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Hoi An 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). 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.