VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Portland?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Portland for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Portland leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Portland 68: Portland leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Portland 38: Petra leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Portland 52: Portland leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Portland 84: Portland leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Portland 58: Portland leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Portland 55: Portland leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Portland 62: Portland leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Portland 52: Portland leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Portland 38: Petra leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Portland 55: Portland leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Portland 42: Portland leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Portland.

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PetraPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraPortland
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m152 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraPortland
City population-652,503
People per km²-1,736
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Portland 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.