VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Sofia?

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

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

Choose Sofia for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sofia’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 and Sofia are level on 5.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Sofia 45: Sofia leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Sofia 60: Petra leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Sofia 40: Sofia leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Sofia 65: Sofia leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Sofia 38: Sofia leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Sofia 45: Sofia leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Sofia.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.

Sofia
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife 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
14 hdaylight a day

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSofia

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). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSofia
Official languageArabicBulgarian
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation850 m560 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSofia
City population-1,213,134
People per km²-2,466
Museums within 10 km242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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