VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Johannesburg and Petra are level on 5.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Petra 22: Johannesburg leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Petra 85: Petra leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Petra 5: Johannesburg leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Petra 78: Petra leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Petra 30: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Petra 25: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Petra 25: Petra leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Petra 18: Johannesburg leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Petra 45: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Petra 10: Johannesburg leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg and Petra are level on 28.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Petra.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 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
JohannesburgPetra

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPetra
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageArabic
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m850 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPetra
City population4,803,262-
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km142
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 Johannesburg 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.