Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.
Petra or Santa Marta?
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 Santa Marta for
- beaches
- nightlife
- prices
What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Santa Marta.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.
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
Santa Marta in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Petra | Santa Marta |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Arabic | Spanish |
| Currency | Jordanian Dinar (JOD) | Colombian Peso (COP) |
| Sockets | BCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz | AB110 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+3 | UTC-5 |
| Emergency number | 911 | 123 |
| Elevation | 850 m | 8 m |
| Main airport | King Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations | Simón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | - | 19 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Petra | Santa Marta |
|---|---|---|
| City population | - | 505,915 |
| People per km² | - | 1,723 |
| Museums within 10 km | 2 | 3 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| 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 Santa Marta somewhere new.