VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or Santa Monica?

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 Monica for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: El Nido leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Santa Monica 72: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 56 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 49 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Santa Monica 14: El Nido leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Santa Monica 45: El Nido leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Santa Monica.

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 Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSanta Monica

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 Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSanta Monica
City population51,36793,076
People per km²564,270
Museums within 10 km019
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 Santa Monica 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.