VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Petra 5: Interlaken leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Petra 22: Interlaken leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Petra 85: Petra leads by 77 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Petra 5: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Petra 78: Interlaken leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Petra 30: Interlaken leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Petra 25: Interlaken leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Petra 25: Interlaken leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Petra 18: Interlaken leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Petra 45: Petra leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Petra 10: Interlaken leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Petra 28: Interlaken leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Petra.

Your match

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

Interlaken
Best match
41match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenPetra

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenPetra
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshArabic
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation571 m850 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenPetra
City population6,123-
People per km²1,424-
Museums within 10 km32
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 Interlaken 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.