VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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. Paphos 76, Petra 5: Paphos leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Petra 22: Paphos leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Petra 85: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Petra 5: Paphos leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Petra 78: Petra leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Petra 30: Paphos leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Petra 25: Paphos leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Petra 25: Paphos leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Petra 18: Paphos leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Petra 45: Paphos leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Petra 10: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Petra 28: Paphos leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Petra.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosPetra

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosPetra
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m850 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosPetra
City population35,961-
People per km²1,987-
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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