VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Petra or Riga?

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 Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Riga 52: Riga leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Riga 66: Petra leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Riga 52: Riga leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Riga 55: Petra leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Riga 60: Riga leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Riga 50: Riga leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Riga 68: Riga leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Riga 45: Riga leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Riga 62: Riga leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Riga 65: Riga leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Riga 50: Riga leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Riga.

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.

Riga
Best match
55match

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
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PetraRiga

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). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraRiga
Official languageArabicLatvian
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation850 m6 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePetraRiga
City population-588,911
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Riga 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.