VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Oslo 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 Oslo for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Petra for

  • prices
  • 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. Oslo 36, Petra 5: Oslo leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Petra 22: Oslo leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Petra 85: Petra leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Petra 5: Oslo leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Petra 78: Oslo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Petra 30: Oslo leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Petra 25: Oslo leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Petra 25: Oslo leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Petra 18: Oslo leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Petra 45: Petra leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Petra 10: Oslo leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Petra 28: Oslo leads by 32 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OsloPetra

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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsloPetra
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiArabic
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation23 m850 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOsloPetra
City population717,710-
Museums within 10 km602
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oslo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.