VacationSelector
La Paz
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • families

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. La Paz 3, Petra 5: Petra leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Petra 22: La Paz leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Petra 85: Petra leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Petra 5: La Paz leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Petra 78: La Paz leads by 4 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Petra 30: La Paz leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Petra 25: Petra leads by 15 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Petra 25: La Paz leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Petra 18: La Paz leads by 27 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Petra 45: La Paz leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Petra 10: La Paz leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Petra 28: Petra leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

La Paz
Best match
42match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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
La PazPetra

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa PazPetra
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniArabic
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAC50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation3,640 m850 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazPetra
City population755,732-
People per km²1,601-
Museums within 10 km212
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 La Paz or Petra somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.