VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Galway?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: El Nido leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Galway 45: Galway leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Galway 33: Galway leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Galway 50: Galway leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Galway 78: El Nido leads by 9 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Galway 56: Galway leads by 48 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Galway 42: Galway leads by 2 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Galway 58: Galway leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Galway 38: Galway leads by 31 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Galway 28: El Nido leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Galway 57: Galway leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Galway 28: El Nido leads by 18 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Galway
Best match
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoGalway

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.

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoGalway
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m25 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoGalway
City population51,36783,456
People per km²561,563
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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