VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

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

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Brisbane 55, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, El Nido 27: Brisbane leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, El Nido 4: Brisbane leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, El Nido 30: Brisbane leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, El Nido 8: Brisbane leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, El Nido 40: Brisbane leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, El Nido 22: Brisbane leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, El Nido 7: Brisbane leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, El Nido 7: Brisbane leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, El Nido 46: El Nido leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and El Nido.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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.

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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
BrisbaneEl 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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneEl Nido
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+8
Emergency number000911
Elevation0 m35 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneEl Nido
City population2,706,96651,367
People per km²17156
Museums within 10 km160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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