VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose El Nido for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Barcelona 75, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, El Nido 27: Barcelona leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, El Nido 4: Barcelona leads by 82 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, El Nido 30: Barcelona leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, El Nido 8: Barcelona leads by 72 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, El Nido 40: Barcelona leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, El Nido 22: Barcelona leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, El Nido 7: Barcelona leads by 68 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, El Nido 7: Barcelona leads by 63 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, El Nido 46: El Nido leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and El Nido.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on prices 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
BarcelonaEl 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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaEl Nido
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m35 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaEl Nido
City population1,731,64951,367
People per km²17,09456
Museums within 10 km950
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.