VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

El Nido or Tirana?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Tirana for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: El Nido leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Tirana 57: Tirana leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Tirana 42: Tirana leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Tirana 58: Tirana leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Tirana 62: El Nido leads by 25 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 56 points.
Good for families. El Nido and Tirana are level on 40.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Tirana 54: Tirana leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Tirana 32: Tirana leads by 25 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Tirana 32: Tirana leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Tirana 27: El Nido leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Tirana.

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.

Tirana
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips 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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoTirana

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. Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoTirana
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishAlbanian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Lek (ALL)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m110 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoTirana
City population51,367389,323
People per km²569,314
Museums within 10 km011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow El Nido or Tirana 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.