VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

El Nido or Reykjavik?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: El Nido leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Reykjavik 42: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Reykjavik 25: Reykjavik leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 5 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Reykjavik 35: Reykjavik leads by 27 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Reykjavik 25: Reykjavik leads by 18 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Reykjavik 6: El Nido leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Reykjavik
Best match
44match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoReykjavik

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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoReykjavik
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishIcelandic
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m8 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoReykjavik
City population51,367138,772
People per km²56569
Museums within 10 km023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow El Nido or Reykjavik 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.