VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Petra for

  • prices
  • 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. Lucerne 35, Petra 5: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Petra 22: Lucerne leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Petra 85: Petra leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Petra 5: Lucerne leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Petra 78: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Petra 30: Lucerne leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Petra 25: Lucerne leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Petra 25: Lucerne leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Petra 18: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Petra 45: Petra leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Petra 10: Lucerne leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Petra 28: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Petra.

Your match

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

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on prices 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.

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LucernePetra

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

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. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucernePetra
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshArabic
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m850 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLucernePetra
City population86,234-
People per km²2,963-
Museums within 10 km142
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 Lucerne 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.