VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License.

El Nido or Macau?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Macau’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, Macau 24: El Nido leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Macau 77: Macau leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Macau 62: Macau leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Macau 40: Macau leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Macau 5: El Nido leads by 82 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Macau 52: Macau leads by 44 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Macau 48: Macau leads by 8 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Macau 60: Macau leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Macau 58: Macau leads by 51 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Macau 44: El Nido leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Macau 36: Macau leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Macau 40: El Nido leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Macau.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

El Nido
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Macau
Best match
46match

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoMacau

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoMacau
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishPortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation35 m22 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoMacau
City population51,367682,100
People per km²565,916
Museums within 10 km028
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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