VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Macau’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. Macau 24, Petra 5: Macau leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Petra 22: Macau leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Petra 85: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Petra 5: Macau leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Petra 78: Petra leads by 73 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Petra 30: Macau leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Petra 25: Macau leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Petra 25: Macau leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Petra 18: Macau leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Petra 45: Petra leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Petra 10: Macau leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Petra 28: Macau leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Petra.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on food and drink and shopping 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.

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MacauPetra

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMacauPetra
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseArabic
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m850 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureMacauPetra
City population682,100-
People per km²5,916-
Museums within 10 km282
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

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