VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Huatulco 86, Petra 5: Huatulco leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Petra 22: Huatulco leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Petra 85: Petra leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Petra 5: Huatulco leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Petra 78: Petra leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Petra 30: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Petra 25: Huatulco leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Petra 25: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Petra 18: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Petra 45: Huatulco leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Petra 10: Petra leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Petra 28: Huatulco leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Huatulco
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoPetra

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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.

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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoPetra
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
Elevation220 m850 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoPetra
City population7,409-
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Huatulco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.