VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

El Nido or Tampa?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Tampa for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: El Nido leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Tampa 55: El Nido leads by 32 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 46 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 38 points.
Getting around. El Nido and Tampa are level on 22.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 33 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Tampa 40: El Nido leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Tampa 30: El Nido leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Tampa.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoTampa

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoTampa
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation35 m30 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoTampa
City population51,367384,959
People per km²56848
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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