VacationSelector
The entrance to the Big Lagoon, El Nido
El NidoThe entrance to the Big Lagoon
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

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

El Nido or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valparaiso for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: El Nido leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. El Nido 27, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. El Nido 4, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. El Nido 30, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. El Nido 87, Valparaiso 60: El Nido leads by 27 points.
Day trips. El Nido 8, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 55 points.
Good for families. El Nido 40, Valparaiso 33: El Nido leads by 7 points.
Getting around. El Nido 22, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. El Nido 7, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 23 points.
Affordability. El Nido 64, Valparaiso 60: El Nido leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. El Nido 7, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. El Nido 46, Valparaiso 18: El Nido leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: El Nido and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

El Nido
36match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
Best match
46match

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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
El NidoValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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. Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEl NidoValparaiso
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation35 m21 m
Main airportEl Nido Airport (ENI)4 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEl NidoValparaiso
City population51,367296,655
People per km²566,180
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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