VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

El Nido or Seoul?

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 Seoul for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: El Nido leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Seoul 75: El Nido leads by 12 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 69 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 40 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 65 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 78 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Seoul 50: El Nido leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Seoul.

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.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSeoul

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. Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSeoul
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Won (KRW)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation35 m38 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSeoul
City population51,3679,668,465
People per km²5615,973
Museums within 10 km081
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow El Nido or Seoul 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.