VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Siena?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Siena leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Siena 62: Siena leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Siena 78: Petra leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Siena 27: Siena leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Siena 65: Petra leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Siena 94: Siena leads by 64 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Siena 38: Siena leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Siena 60: Siena leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Siena 35: Siena leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Siena 42: Petra leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Siena 36: Siena leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Siena 55: Siena leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Siena.

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.

Siena
Best match
51match

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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSiena

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.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSiena
Official languageArabicItalian
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation850 m322 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSiena
City population-52,812
People per km²-446
Museums within 10 km230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15

Where else could you go?

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