VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Rowing boats below the ghats in the morning light, Varanasi
VaranasiRowing boats below the ghats in the morning light

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Varanasi by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Petra or Varanasi?

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
  • families
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Varanasi for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Varanasi’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, Varanasi 4: Petra leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Varanasi 80: Petra leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Varanasi 10: Varanasi leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Varanasi 18: Petra leads by 60 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Varanasi 42: Varanasi leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Varanasi 5: Petra leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Varanasi 28: Varanasi leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Varanasi 55: Varanasi leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Varanasi 92: Varanasi leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Varanasi 58: Varanasi leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Varanasi 30: Varanasi leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Varanasi.

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 families with your weighting.

Varanasi
Best match
40match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices 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
14 hdaylight a day

Varanasi in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
249 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PetraVaranasi

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.

Varanasi has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). Varanasi: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePetraVaranasi
Official languageArabicHindi, English
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+5:30
Emergency number911108 or 112
Elevation850 m76 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsLal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS)21 km from centre16 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePetraVaranasi
City population-1,198,491
People per km²-14,598
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Petra or Varanasi 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.