VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

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

El Nido or Riga?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Riga for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: El Nido leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Riga 52: Riga leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Riga 66: Riga leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Riga 52: Riga leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Riga 55: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Riga 60: Riga leads by 52 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Riga 50: Riga leads by 10 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Riga 68: Riga leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Riga 45: Riga leads by 38 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Riga 62: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Riga 65: Riga leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Riga 50: Riga 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 Riga.

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.

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoRiga

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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoRiga
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishLatvian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m6 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoRiga
City population51,367588,911
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km012
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 Riga 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.