VacationSelector
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

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

Lyon 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 Lyon for

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

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Lyon 12, Petra 5: Lyon leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Lyon 84, Petra 22: Lyon leads by 62 points.
Culture & sights. Lyon 77, Petra 85: Petra leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Lyon 58, Petra 5: Lyon leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lyon 64, Petra 78: Petra leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Lyon 77, Petra 30: Lyon leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Lyon 62, Petra 25: Lyon leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Lyon 77, Petra 25: Lyon leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Lyon 58, Petra 18: Lyon leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Lyon 42, Petra 45: Petra leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lyon 68, Petra 10: Lyon leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lyon 40, Petra 28: Lyon leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts 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.

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 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
LyonPetra

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. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLyonPetra
Official languageFrenchArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation160 m850 m
Main airportLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLyonPetra
City population519,127-
People per km²10,838-
Museums within 10 km432
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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