VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Manila 12, Petra 5: Manila leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Petra 22: Manila leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Petra 85: Petra leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Petra 5: Manila leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Petra 78: Petra leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Petra 30: Manila leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Petra 25: Manila leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Petra 25: Manila leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Petra 18: Manila leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Petra 45: Manila leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Petra 10: Manila leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Petra 28: Manila leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaPetra

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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaPetra
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishArabic
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m850 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureManilaPetra
City population1,902,590-
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km272
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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