VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Petra or Queenstown?

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 Queenstown for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Queenstown 12: Petra leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Queenstown 28: Queenstown leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Queenstown 20: Petra leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Queenstown 14: Queenstown leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Queenstown.

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.

Queenstown
Best match
40match

Wins on nightlife and families 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PetraQueenstown

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.

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePetraQueenstown
Official languageArabicEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation850 m324 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraQueenstown
City population-29,000
Museums within 10 km20
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 Queenstown 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.