VacationSelector
The Golden Bridge held up by stone hands, Da Nang
Da NangThe Golden Bridge held up by stone hands
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon

Photos: Da Nang by Nghia Tran, Pexels License; El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Da Nang 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 Da Nang for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose El Nido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Da Nang 80, El Nido 92: El Nido leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Da Nang 67, El Nido 27: Da Nang leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Da Nang 38, El Nido 4: Da Nang leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Da Nang 44, El Nido 30: Da Nang leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Da Nang 72, El Nido 87: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Da Nang 80, El Nido 8: Da Nang leads by 72 points.
Good for families. Da Nang 62, El Nido 40: Da Nang leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Da Nang 38, El Nido 22: Da Nang leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Da Nang 40, El Nido 7: Da Nang leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Da Nang 90, El Nido 64: Da Nang leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Da Nang 20, El Nido 7: Da Nang leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Da Nang 64, El Nido 46: Da Nang leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Da Nang and El Nido.

Your match

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

Da Nang
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and food and drink 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.

Da Nang in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Da NangEl 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. Da Nang: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (4.9 km from centre). El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDa NangEl Nido
Official languageVietnameseEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyDong (VND)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation19 m35 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)3 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureDa NangEl Nido
City population2,819,90051,367
People per km²23856
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Da Nang 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.