VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Petra or San Jose?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, San Jose 36: Petra leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, San Jose 72: Petra leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, San Jose 20: Petra leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and San Jose.

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.

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips 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
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSan Jose

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). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSan Jose
City population-1,013,240
People per km²-2,167
Museums within 10 km219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 San Jose 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.