VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Petra or St. Pete Beach?

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
  • prices

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, St. Pete Beach 40: St. Pete Beach leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, St. Pete Beach 18: Petra leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, St. Pete Beach 28: St. Pete Beach leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, St. Pete Beach 57: Petra leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, St. Pete Beach 58: St. Pete Beach leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 47 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, St. Pete Beach 30: St. Pete Beach leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, St. Pete Beach 20: St. Pete Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, St. Pete Beach 32: Petra leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, St. Pete Beach 20: St. Pete Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, St. Pete Beach 42: St. Pete Beach leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and St. Pete Beach.

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.

St. Pete Beach
Best match
42match

Wins on beaches and families 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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSt. Pete Beach

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.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSt. Pete Beach
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m2 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSt. Pete Beach
City population-8,879
People per km²-173
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or St. Pete Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.