VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License.

Ghent or Manila?

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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Manila for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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. Ghent 25, Manila 12: Ghent leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Manila 64: Manila leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Manila 54: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Manila 64: Manila leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Manila 40: Manila leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Manila 42: Ghent leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Manila 42: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Manila 26: Ghent leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Manila 60: Manila leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Manila 77: Manila leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Manila 50: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Manila 40: Manila leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Manila.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
GhentManila

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentManila
Official languageFrench, German, DutchEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m9 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentManila
City population272,6571,902,590
People per km²1,72876,104
Museums within 10 km3027
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Manila somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.