VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors

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. Luxor 6, Petra 5: Luxor leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Petra 22: Luxor leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Petra 85: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Petra 5: Luxor leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Petra 78: Petra leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Petra 30: Luxor leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Petra 25: Luxor leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Petra 25: Luxor leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Petra 18: Luxor leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Petra 45: Luxor leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor and Petra are level on 10.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor and Petra are level on 28.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luxor and Petra.

Your match

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

Luxor
Best match
38match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
LuxorPetra

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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.

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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorPetra
Official languageArabicArabic
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation89 m850 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorPetra
City population202,232-
People per km²486-
Museums within 10 km42
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 Luxor 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). 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.