VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Catania 72, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, El Nido 27: Catania leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, El Nido 4: Catania leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, El Nido 30: Catania leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, El Nido 8: Catania leads by 76 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, El Nido 40: Catania leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, El Nido 22: Catania leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, El Nido 7: Catania leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, El Nido 7: Catania leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, El Nido 46: El Nido leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and El Nido.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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
CataniaEl Nido

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCataniaEl Nido
Official languageItalianEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m35 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaEl Nido
City population311,58451,367
People per km²1,70456
Museums within 10 km250
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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