VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
Rice terraces and palms at Tegallalang, Ubud
UbudRice terraces and palms at Tegallalang

Photos: El Nido by nennnn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ubud by Pinterpandai, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

El Nido or Ubud?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Ubud for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Ubud’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, Ubud 38: El Nido leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Ubud 60: Ubud leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Ubud 58: Ubud leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Ubud 15: El Nido leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Ubud 80: El Nido leads by 7 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Ubud 72: Ubud leads by 64 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Ubud 48: Ubud leads by 8 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Ubud 10: El Nido leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Ubud 52: Ubud leads by 45 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Ubud 80: Ubud leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Ubud 47: Ubud leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Ubud 96: Ubud leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Ubud.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Ubud
Best match
55match

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

Ubud in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
110 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoUbud

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.

Ubud's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai.

Ubud's station stands 209 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Ubud 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. Ubud: 1991-2020 normals, Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai (29 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoUbud
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishIndonesian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number911112
Elevation35 m210 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsDenpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)29 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoUbud
City population51,367-
People per km²56-
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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