VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Penang?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Penang’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, Penang 44: El Nido leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Penang 86: Penang leads by 59 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Penang 70: Penang leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Penang 40: Penang leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Penang 55: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Penang 42: Penang leads by 34 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Penang 52: Penang leads by 12 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Penang 40: Penang leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Penang 42: Penang leads by 35 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Penang 78: Penang leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Penang 30: Penang leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Penang 42: El Nido 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 Penang.

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.

Penang
Best match
52match

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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoPenang

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. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoPenang
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishMalay
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation35 m4 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoPenang
City population51,367794,313
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Penang 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.