VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Petra or Thessaloniki?

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 Thessaloniki for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Thessaloniki 73: Petra leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 71 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Thessaloniki 66: Petra leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Thessaloniki.

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.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on nightlife 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
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
PetraThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraThessaloniki
Official languageArabicGreek
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 m6 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraThessaloniki
City population-309,617
People per km²-16,042
Museums within 10 km232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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