VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Salvador?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Salvador for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: El Nido leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Salvador 52: El Nido leads by 35 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 48 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 2 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 35 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Salvador 32: El Nido 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 Salvador.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSalvador

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSalvador
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishPortuguese
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation35 m8 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSalvador
City population51,3672,417,678
People per km²563,489
Museums within 10 km049
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 Salvador 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.