VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Petra or Washington DC?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Washington DC 84: Petra leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Washington DC 64: Petra leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 48 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Washington DC 28: Petra leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Washington DC 26: Petra leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PetraWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraWashington DC
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation850 m72 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraWashington DC
City population-689,545
People per km²-3,896
Museums within 10 km298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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