VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose El Nido for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Chicago 50, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, El Nido 27: Chicago leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, El Nido 4: Chicago leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, El Nido 30: Chicago leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, El Nido 8: Chicago leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, El Nido 40: Chicago leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, El Nido 22: Chicago leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, El Nido 7: Chicago leads by 63 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, El Nido 64: El Nido leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, El Nido 7: Chicago leads by 75 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 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: Chicago and El Nido.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

El Nido in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
368 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoEl 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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChicagoEl Nido
Official language-English, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m35 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoEl Nido
City population2,746,38851,367
People per km²4,52956
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Chicago 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.