VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Fort Lauderdale?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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, Fort Lauderdale 88: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Fort Lauderdale 47: Fort Lauderdale leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Fort Lauderdale 28: Fort Lauderdale leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Fort Lauderdale 62: El Nido leads by 25 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Fort Lauderdale 58: Fort Lauderdale leads by 50 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Fort Lauderdale 66: Fort Lauderdale leads by 26 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Fort Lauderdale 32: Fort Lauderdale leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 45 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Fort Lauderdale 32: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Fort Lauderdale 42: Fort Lauderdale leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Fort Lauderdale 40: El Nido leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Fort Lauderdale.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

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

Fort Lauderdale
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoFort Lauderdale

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. El Nido: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoFort Lauderdale
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m11 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre138 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoFort Lauderdale
City population51,367182,760
People per km²561,829
Museums within 10 km06
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 El Nido or Fort Lauderdale 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. 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.