VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

El Nido or Siem Reap?

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
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: El Nido leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 84 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Siem Reap 40: El Nido leads by 47 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 47 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Siem Reap 35: El Nido leads by 5 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 31 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Siem Reap.

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.

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSiem Reap

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.

Siem Reap 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. Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSiem Reap
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishKhmer
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Riel (KHR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation35 m18 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSiem Reap
City population51,367147,866
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km06
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 Siem Reap 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. 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.