VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Petra or Seoul?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Seoul for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 62 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Seoul 75: Petra leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 79 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Seoul 75: Petra leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 67 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Seoul 50: Seoul leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Seoul.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSeoul
Official languageArabicKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Won (KRW)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation850 m38 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSeoul
City population-9,668,465
People per km²-15,973
Museums within 10 km281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Seoul 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.