VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Split?

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 Split for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Split leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Split 57: Split leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Split 66: Petra leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Split 52: Split leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Split 77: Petra leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Split 78: Split leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Split 54: Split leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Split 67: Split leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Split 32: Split leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Petra and Split are level on 45.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Split 37: Split leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Split 40: Split leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Split.

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.

Split
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSplit

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). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSplit
Official languageArabicCroatian
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 m0 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSplit
City population-160,577
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

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