VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License.

El Nido or Honolulu?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Honolulu for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Honolulu’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, Honolulu 91: El Nido leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Honolulu 70: Honolulu leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Honolulu 55: Honolulu leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Honolulu 45: Honolulu leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Honolulu 88: Honolulu leads by 1 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Honolulu 38: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Honolulu 80: Honolulu leads by 40 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Honolulu 52: Honolulu leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Honolulu 60: Honolulu leads by 53 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Honolulu 15: El Nido leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Honolulu 40: Honolulu leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Honolulu 50: Honolulu leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Honolulu.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on shopping 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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoHonolulu

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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoHonolulu
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-10
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m12 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoHonolulu
City population51,367350,964
People per km²561,981
Museums within 10 km012
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 Honolulu 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.