VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Fethiye?

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 El Nido for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Fethiye for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fethiye’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. El Nido 92, Fethiye 82: El Nido leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Fethiye 45: Fethiye leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Fethiye 35: Fethiye leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Fethiye 42: Fethiye leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Fethiye 84: El Nido leads by 3 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Fethiye 76: Fethiye leads by 68 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Fethiye 60: Fethiye leads by 20 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Fethiye 50: Fethiye leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Fethiye 38: Fethiye leads by 31 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Fethiye 62: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Fethiye 15: Fethiye leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Fethiye 55: Fethiye leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Fethiye.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

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

Fethiye
Best match
54match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

El Nido in July

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

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoFethiye

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.

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoFethiye
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishTurkish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m0 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoFethiye
City population51,367182,200
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow El Nido or Fethiye somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.