VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Sao Paulo?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: El Nido leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Sao Paulo 48: El Nido leads by 39 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 39 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 12 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 63 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Sao Paulo 62: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 69 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Sao Paulo 25: El Nido leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Sao Paulo.

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.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSao Paulo

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. Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSao Paulo
City population51,36711,451,999
People per km²567,519
Museums within 10 km090
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 Sao Paulo 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.