VacationSelector
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Krakow 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 Krakow for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Krakow 9, Petra 5: Krakow leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Krakow 55, Petra 22: Krakow leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Krakow 77, Petra 85: Petra leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Krakow 68, Petra 5: Krakow leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krakow 62, Petra 78: Petra leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Krakow 76, Petra 30: Krakow leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Krakow 58, Petra 25: Krakow leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Krakow 74, Petra 25: Krakow leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Krakow 48, Petra 18: Krakow leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Krakow 72, Petra 45: Krakow leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krakow 55, Petra 10: Krakow leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krakow 36, Petra 28: Krakow leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Krakow
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
KrakowPetra

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. Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKrakowPetra
Official languagePolishArabic
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCE50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation219 m850 m
Main airportKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKrakowPetra
City population804,237-
People per km²2,459-
Museums within 10 km1132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41

Where else could you go?

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