VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Hoi An?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Hoi An for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Hoi An’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, Hoi An 72: El Nido leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Hoi An 68: Hoi An leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Hoi An 66: Hoi An leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Hoi An 28: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Hoi An 63: El Nido leads by 24 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Hoi An 50: Hoi An leads by 42 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Hoi An 58: Hoi An leads by 18 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Hoi An 48: Hoi An leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Hoi An 57: Hoi An leads by 50 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Hoi An 88: Hoi An leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Hoi An 24: Hoi An leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Hoi An 65: Hoi An leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Hoi An.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

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

Hoi An
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Hoi An in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoHoi An

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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoHoi An
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishVietnamese
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Dong (VND)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzACFG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 113, ambulance 115, fire 114
Elevation35 m13 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoHoi An
City population51,367121,716
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Hoi An 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.