VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Petra or Valletta?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Valletta for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Valletta 55: Valletta leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Valletta 76: Petra leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Valletta 56: Petra leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Valletta 38: Valletta leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Valletta 32: Valletta leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Valletta.

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Valletta
Best match
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PetraValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraValletta
Official languageArabicEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation850 m56 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraValletta
City population-5,197
People per km²-6,496
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Valletta 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.