VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose El Nido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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. Colombo 55, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, El Nido 27: Colombo leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, El Nido 4: Colombo leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, El Nido 30: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 55 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, El Nido 8: Colombo leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, El Nido 40: El Nido leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, El Nido 22: Colombo leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, El Nido 7: Colombo leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, El Nido 64: Colombo leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, El Nido 7: Colombo leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, El Nido 46: Colombo leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and El Nido.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

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

El Nido
36match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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
ColomboEl 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboEl Nido
Official languageTamil, SinhalaEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m35 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboEl Nido
City population647,55751,367
People per km²17,36156
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.