VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Sao Paulo?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Sao Paulo leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 62 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Sao Paulo 60: Petra leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 81 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Sao Paulo 48: Petra leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 52 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 66 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Sao Paulo 25: Petra leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Sao Paulo.

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.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSao Paulo
City population-11,451,999
People per km²-7,519
Museums within 10 km290
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Sao Paulo 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.