VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Nairobi?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: El Nido leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Nairobi 48: Nairobi leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Nairobi 84: El Nido leads by 3 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Nairobi 28: Nairobi leads by 20 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Nairobi 55: Nairobi leads by 15 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Nairobi 20: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 38 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Nairobi 60: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Nairobi 25: El Nido leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Nairobi.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Nairobi
Best match
41match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoNairobi

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. Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoNairobi
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation35 m1,661 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoNairobi
City population51,3675,545,000
People per km²567,967
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Nairobi 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.