VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Petra or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Miguel de Allende 4: Petra leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, San Miguel de Allende 62: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, San Miguel de Allende 40: Petra leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, San Miguel de Allende 32: San Miguel de Allende leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and San Miguel de Allende.

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.

San Miguel de Allende
Best match
48match

Wins on day trips and food and drink 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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSan Miguel de Allende

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.

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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 Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m1,900 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSan Miguel de Allende
City population-69,811
Museums within 10 km22
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.