VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Oaxaca?

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

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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, Oaxaca 5: El Nido leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Oaxaca 84: Oaxaca leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Oaxaca 40: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Oaxaca 62: El Nido leads by 25 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 57 points.
Good for families. El Nido and Oaxaca are level on 40.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Oaxaca 55: Oaxaca leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 55 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Oaxaca 38: Oaxaca leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Oaxaca.

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.

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoOaxaca

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. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoOaxaca
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-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m1,555 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoOaxaca
City population51,367258,913
People per km²563,028
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Oaxaca 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.