VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Petra or Philadelphia?

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 Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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. Petra 5, Philadelphia 36: Philadelphia leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Philadelphia 72: Petra leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Philadelphia 55: Philadelphia leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Philadelphia 52: Petra leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Philadelphia 40: Petra leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Philadelphia 26: Petra leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PetraPhiladelphia

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. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraPhiladelphia
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m12 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraPhiladelphia
City population-1,603,797
People per km²-4,339
Museums within 10 km254
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Philadelphia 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.