VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • prices

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. Aspen 6, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, El Nido 27: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, El Nido 4: Aspen leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, El Nido 30: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, El Nido 87: Aspen leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, El Nido 8: Aspen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, El Nido 40: Aspen leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, El Nido 22: Aspen leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, El Nido 7: Aspen leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, El Nido 7: Aspen leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, El Nido 46: Aspen leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and El Nido.

Your match

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

Aspen
Best match
43match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches 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.

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AspenEl Nido

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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.

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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAspenEl Nido
Official language-English, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m35 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenEl Nido
City population7,00451,367
People per km²70056
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.