VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Salvador?

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 Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Salvador 74: Petra leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 65 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Salvador 52: Petra leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Salvador.

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.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSalvador
Official languageArabicPortuguese
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation850 m8 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSalvador
City population-2,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km249
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

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