VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

El Nido or Johannesburg?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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, Johannesburg 5: El Nido leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Johannesburg 56: Johannesburg leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Johannesburg 55: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Johannesburg 52: Johannesburg leads by 44 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Johannesburg 42: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Johannesburg 18: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Johannesburg 58: Johannesburg leads by 51 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Johannesburg 55: Johannesburg leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Johannesburg 28: El Nido leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Johannesburg.

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.

Johannesburg
Best match
47match

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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoJohannesburg

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoJohannesburg
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m1,753 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoJohannesburg
City population51,3674,803,262
People per km²562,922
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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