VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Petra for

  • prices
  • 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. Monaco 68, Petra 5: Monaco leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Petra 22: Monaco leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Petra 85: Petra leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Petra 5: Monaco leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Petra 78: Petra leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Petra 30: Monaco leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Petra 25: Monaco leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Petra 25: Monaco leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Petra 18: Monaco leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Petra 45: Petra leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Petra 10: Monaco leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Petra 28: Monaco leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Petra.

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on prices 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.

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoPetra

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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoPetra
Official languageFrenchArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m850 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoPetra
City population38,857-
People per km²18,503-
Museums within 10 km142
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Petra somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.