VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Scottsdale?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: El Nido leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Scottsdale 68: El Nido leads by 19 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Scottsdale 50: Scottsdale leads by 42 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 20 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Scottsdale 20: El Nido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 53 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Scottsdale 32: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Scottsdale.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on shopping and day trips 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoScottsdale

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. Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoScottsdale
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m380 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoScottsdale
City population51,367241,361
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Scottsdale 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.