VacationSelector
The Red Tower and the harbour, Alanya
AlanyaThe Red Tower and the harbour
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Alanya by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Alanya 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 Alanya for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose El Nido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Alanya 84, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Alanya 43, El Nido 27: Alanya leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Alanya 44, El Nido 4: Alanya leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Alanya 58, El Nido 30: Alanya leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alanya 68, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Alanya 62, El Nido 8: Alanya leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Alanya 70, El Nido 40: Alanya leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Alanya 50, El Nido 22: Alanya leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Alanya 34, El Nido 7: Alanya leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Alanya 65, El Nido 64: Alanya leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alanya 15, El Nido 7: Alanya leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alanya 56, El Nido 46: Alanya leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alanya and El Nido.

Your match

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

Alanya
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

El Nido
36match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alanya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

El Nido in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
368 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AlanyaEl Nido

Where the figures come from

Alanya 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.

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. Alanya: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlanyaEl Nido
Official languageTurkishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m35 m
Main airportGazipaşa-Alanya Airport (GZP)38 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlanyaEl Nido
City population364,18051,367
People per km²22856
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alanya or El Nido somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.