VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Osaka 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 Osaka for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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. Osaka 34, Petra 5: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Petra 22: Osaka leads by 69 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Petra 85: Petra leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Petra 5: Osaka leads by 75 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Petra 78: Petra leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Petra 30: Osaka leads by 67 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Petra 25: Osaka leads by 63 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Petra 25: Osaka leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Petra 18: Osaka leads by 62 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Petra 45: Osaka leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Petra 10: Osaka leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Petra 28: Osaka leads by 38 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

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.

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaPetra

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. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaPetra
Official languageJapaneseArabic
CurrencyYen (JPY)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m850 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaPetra
City population2,751,862-
People per km²12,340-
Museums within 10 km442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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