VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Medellin 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 Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. Medellin and Petra are level on 5.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Petra 22: Medellin leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Petra 85: Petra leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Petra 5: Medellin leads by 71 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Petra 78: Petra leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Petra 30: Medellin leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Petra 25: Medellin leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Petra 25: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Petra 18: Medellin leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Petra 45: Medellin leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Petra 10: Medellin leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Petra 28: Medellin leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Petra.

Your match

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

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and 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.

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinPetra

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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. Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinPetra
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number123911
Elevation1,405 m850 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinPetra
City population2,529,403-
People per km²6,644-
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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