VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Cebu or Madrid?

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 Cebu for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Madrid for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Cebu 60, Madrid 5: Cebu leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu and Madrid are level on 60.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Madrid 50: Cebu leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Madrid 36: Cebu leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Madrid.

Your match

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

Cebu
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuMadrid

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuMadrid
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation135 m663 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuMadrid
City population965,3323,506,730
People per km²3,0655,801
Museums within 10 km588
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu or Madrid 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.