VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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. Lima 42, Petra 5: Lima leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Petra 22: Lima leads by 66 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Petra 85: Petra leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Petra 5: Lima leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Petra 78: Petra leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Petra 30: Lima leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Petra 25: Lima leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Petra 25: Lima leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Petra 18: Lima leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Petra 45: Lima leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Petra 10: Lima leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Petra 28: Petra leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Petra.

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife 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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
LimaPetra

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaPetra
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic
CurrencySol (PEN)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m850 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimaPetra
City population9,943,800-
People per km²3,721-
Museums within 10 km472
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.