VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or El Nido?

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 Acapulco for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose El Nido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on El Nido’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. Acapulco 80, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, El Nido 27: Acapulco leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, El Nido 4: Acapulco leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, El Nido 30: Acapulco leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, El Nido 8: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, El Nido 40: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, El Nido 22: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, El Nido 7: Acapulco leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, El Nido 64: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, El Nido 7: Acapulco leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, El Nido 46: El Nido leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and El Nido.

Your match

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

Acapulco
Best match
44match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

El Nido
36match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

El Nido in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
368 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoEl Nido

Where the figures come from

El Nido 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoEl Nido
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m35 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoEl Nido
City population658,60951,367
People per km²35056
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or El Nido 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.