VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: El Nido leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Steamboat Springs 30: Steamboat Springs leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Steamboat Springs 14: Steamboat Springs leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Steamboat Springs 20: El Nido leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 1 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Steamboat Springs 12: Steamboat Springs leads by 4 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 22 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Steamboat Springs 22: Steamboat Springs leads by 15 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Steamboat Springs 17: El Nido leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Steamboat Springs 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoSteamboat Springs
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m2,052 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoSteamboat Springs
City population51,36713,224
People per km²56503
Museums within 10 km00
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 Steamboat Springs 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.