VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • culture and sights

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. Kathmandu 4, Petra 5: Petra leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Petra 22: Kathmandu leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Petra 85: Petra leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Petra 5: Kathmandu leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Petra 78: Petra leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Petra 30: Kathmandu leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Petra 25: Petra leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu and Petra are level on 25.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Petra 18: Kathmandu leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Petra 45: Kathmandu leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Petra 10: Kathmandu leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Petra 28: Kathmandu leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Petra.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPetra

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPetra
Official languageNepaliArabic
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m850 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPetra
City population845,767-
People per km²17,121-
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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). 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.