VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or Phnom Penh?

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
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’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, Phnom Penh 6: El Nido leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Phnom Penh 28: El Nido leads by 59 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Phnom Penh 34: Phnom Penh leads by 26 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Phnom Penh 32: El Nido leads by 8 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 39 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh 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 Phnom Penh.

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.

Phnom Penh
Best match
44match

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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoPhnom Penh

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. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoPhnom Penh
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishKhmer
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Riel (KHR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation35 m11 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoPhnom Penh
City population51,3672,129,371
People per km²563,138
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Phnom Penh 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.