VacationSelector
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Merida 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 Merida for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Merida’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. Merida 50, Petra 5: Merida leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Merida 72, Petra 22: Merida leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Merida 64, Petra 85: Petra leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Merida 42, Petra 5: Merida leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Merida 48, Petra 78: Petra leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Merida 80, Petra 30: Merida leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Merida 50, Petra 25: Merida leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Merida 45, Petra 25: Merida leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Merida 50, Petra 18: Merida leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Merida 75, Petra 45: Merida leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Merida 52, Petra 10: Merida leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Merida 40, Petra 28: Merida leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Merida and Petra.

Your match

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

Merida
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and day trips 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.

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MeridaPetra

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. Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMeridaPetra
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m850 m
Main airportManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMeridaPetra
City population892,363-
People per km²1,010-
Museums within 10 km52
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Merida 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.