VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or Santa Barbara?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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, Santa Barbara 60: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Santa Barbara 34: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Santa Barbara 80: El Nido leads by 7 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 47 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 24 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Santa Barbara 46: Santa Barbara leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 38 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Santa Barbara 15: El Nido leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips 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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSanta Barbara

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. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSanta Barbara
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m15 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSanta Barbara
City population51,36788,665
People per km²56816
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Santa Barbara 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.