VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Petra or Quito?

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

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

Choose Quito for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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 and Quito are level on 5.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Quito 54: Quito leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Quito 77: Petra leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Quito 40: Quito leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Quito 86: Quito leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Quito 55: Quito leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Quito 32: Quito leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Quito 45: Quito leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Quito 40: Quito leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Quito 78: Quito leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Quito 38: Quito leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Quito 44: Quito leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Quito.

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.

Quito
Best match
50match

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PetraQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraQuito
Official languageArabicSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m2,850 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraQuito
City population-1,763,275
People per km²-4,735
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.