VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Santa Claus Village in winter, Rovaniemi
RovaniemiSanta Claus Village in winter

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Rovaniemi by Moskenes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Rovaniemi?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Rovaniemi for

  • families
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Rovaniemi’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, Rovaniemi 10: El Nido leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Rovaniemi 25: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Rovaniemi 22: Rovaniemi leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Rovaniemi 15: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Rovaniemi 78: El Nido leads by 9 points.
Day trips. El Nido and Rovaniemi are level on 8.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Rovaniemi 72: Rovaniemi leads by 32 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Rovaniemi 36: Rovaniemi leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Rovaniemi 18: Rovaniemi leads by 11 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Rovaniemi 18: El Nido leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Rovaniemi 22: Rovaniemi leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Rovaniemi 60: Rovaniemi leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Rovaniemi.

Your match

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

El Nido
Best match
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Rovaniemi
32match

Wins on families and culture and sights 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

Rovaniemi in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
No seasea
22 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoRovaniemi

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.

Rovaniemi has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Rovaniemi: 2008-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rovaniemi Rautatieasema / Kuusela (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoRovaniemi
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishFinnish, Swedish
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 m88 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsRovaniemi Airport (RVN)8 km from centre44 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoRovaniemi
City population51,36765,329
People per km²569
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Rovaniemi 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.