VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Comares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra, Granada
GranadaComares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Granada by Jebulon, CC0.

El Nido or Granada?

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 Granada for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Granada’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, Granada 38: El Nido leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Granada 62: Granada leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Granada 80: Granada leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Granada 58: Granada leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Granada 80: El Nido leads by 7 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Granada 76: Granada leads by 68 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Granada 52: Granada leads by 12 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Granada 68: Granada leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Granada 40: Granada leads by 33 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Granada 63: El Nido leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Granada 58: Granada leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Granada 48: Granada leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Granada
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Granada in July

35 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoGranada

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. Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoGranada
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m693 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsF.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoGranada
City population51,367233,975
People per km²562,659
Museums within 10 km020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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