VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License.

El Nido or Jakarta?

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

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

Choose Jakarta for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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, Jakarta 28: El Nido leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Jakarta 78: Jakarta leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Jakarta 48: Jakarta leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Jakarta 66: Jakarta leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Jakarta 30: El Nido leads by 57 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Jakarta 45: Jakarta leads by 37 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Jakarta 50: Jakarta leads by 10 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Jakarta 36: Jakarta leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Jakarta 64: Jakarta leads by 57 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Jakarta 80: Jakarta leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Jakarta 42: Jakarta leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido and Jakarta are level on 46.
0255075100

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

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.

Jakarta
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping and food and drink 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

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoJakarta

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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoJakarta
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishIndonesian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m91 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoJakarta
City population51,36711,135,191
People per km²5616,821
Museums within 10 km044
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 Jakarta 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.