VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

El Nido or Huntington Beach?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: El Nido leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Huntington Beach 14: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Huntington Beach 38: Huntington Beach leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Huntington Beach 58: El Nido leads by 29 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 55 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 42 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Huntington Beach 20: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 35 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Huntington Beach 28: El Nido leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Huntington Beach 36: El Nido leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Huntington Beach.

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.

Huntington Beach
Best match
44match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoHuntington Beach

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. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoHuntington Beach
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m12 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoHuntington Beach
City population51,367198,711
People per km²562,406
Museums within 10 km03
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 Huntington Beach 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.