VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Petra or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Valparaiso 62: Petra leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Valparaiso 60: Petra leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Valparaiso 33: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Valparaiso 18: Petra leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

Wins on nightlife 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PetraValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraValparaiso
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation850 m21 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraValparaiso
City population-296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Valparaiso 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.