VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Petra or Phnom Penh?

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

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’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, Phnom Penh 6: Phnom Penh leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Phnom Penh 62: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Phnom Penh 28: Petra leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Phnom Penh 34: Phnom Penh leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Phnom Penh.

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.

Phnom Penh
Best match
44match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PetraPhnom Penh

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). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraPhnom Penh
Official languageArabicKhmer
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation850 m11 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraPhnom Penh
City population-2,129,371
People per km²-3,138
Museums within 10 km23
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 Phnom Penh 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.