VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Petra or Sydney?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 90 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Sydney 60: Petra leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Sydney 22: Petra leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 63 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

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 prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PetraSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraSydney
Official languageArabicEnglish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation850 m6 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraSydney
City population-5,450,496
People per km²-449
Museums within 10 km238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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