VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Petra or Santiago de Compostela?

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 Santiago de Compostela for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Santiago de Compostela 70: Petra leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Santiago de Compostela 62: Petra leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Santiago de Compostela 35: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Santiago de Compostela.

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.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and getting around 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSantiago de Compostela
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation850 m260 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSantiago de Compostela
City population-100,965
People per km²-459
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Santiago de Compostela 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.