VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Petra or Victoria Falls?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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, Victoria Falls 7: Victoria Falls leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Victoria Falls 24: Victoria Falls leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Victoria Falls 12: Petra leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Victoria Falls 8: Victoria Falls leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Victoria Falls 22: Petra leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Victoria Falls 38: Victoria Falls leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Victoria Falls 45: Victoria Falls leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Petra and Victoria Falls are level on 18.
Affordability. Petra 45, Victoria Falls 32: Petra leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra and Victoria Falls are level on 10.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Victoria Falls 34: Victoria Falls leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Victoria Falls.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Victoria Falls
29match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PetraVictoria Falls

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). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraVictoria Falls
Official languageArabicEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2
Emergency number911999
Elevation850 m961 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraVictoria Falls
City population-33,060
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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