VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

El Nido or Istanbul?

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 Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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, Istanbul 45: El Nido leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 86 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Istanbul 52: El Nido leads by 35 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 15 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 79 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Istanbul 60: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Istanbul.

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.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoIstanbul

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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoIstanbul
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishTurkish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m100 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoIstanbul
City population51,36715,655,924
People per km²562,930
Museums within 10 km073
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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