VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

El Nido or Los Cabos?

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 Los Cabos for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Cabos’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, Los Cabos 84: El Nido leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Los Cabos 54: Los Cabos leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Los Cabos 20: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Los Cabos 78: El Nido leads by 9 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Los Cabos 42: Los Cabos leads by 34 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Los Cabos 55: Los Cabos leads by 15 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Los Cabos 28: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Los Cabos 36: Los Cabos leads by 29 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Los Cabos 28: El Nido leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Los Cabos 12: Los Cabos leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Los Cabos.

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.

Los Cabos
Best match
47match

Wins on nightlife and day trips 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

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoLos Cabos

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.

Los Cabos 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. Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoLos Cabos
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m11 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoLos Cabos
City population51,367202,694
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km01
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 Los Cabos 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. 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.