VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or Lima?

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 Lima for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: El Nido leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Lima 88: Lima leads by 61 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Lima 66: Lima leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Lima 62: Lima leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Lima 45: El Nido leads by 42 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Lima 34: Lima leads by 26 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Lima 42: Lima leads by 2 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Lima 35: Lima leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Lima 52: Lima leads by 45 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Lima 70: Lima leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Lima 53: Lima leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Lima 25: El Nido leads by 21 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoLima

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoLima
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Sol (PEN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation35 m154 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoLima
City population51,3679,943,800
People per km²563,721
Museums within 10 km047
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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