VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bilbao 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 Bilbao for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Bilbao 45, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, El Nido 27: Bilbao leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, El Nido 4: Bilbao leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, El Nido 30: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, El Nido 8: Bilbao leads by 70 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, El Nido 40: Bilbao leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, El Nido 22: Bilbao leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, El Nido 7: Bilbao leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, El Nido 7: Bilbao leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, El Nido 46: El Nido leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and El Nido.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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.

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BilbaoEl 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. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoEl 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
Elevation19 m35 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoEl Nido
City population351,12451,367
People per km²8,44056
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bilbao 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.