VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

El Nido or Madrid?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: El Nido leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 82 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Madrid 60: El Nido leads by 27 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 81 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 68 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Madrid 50: El Nido leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 70 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Madrid 36: El Nido leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Madrid.

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.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoMadrid

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoMadrid
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m663 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoMadrid
City population51,3673,506,730
People per km²565,801
Museums within 10 km088
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Madrid 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.