VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang or Puerto Princesa?

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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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. Luang Prabang 14, Puerto Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Puerto Princesa 38: Luang Prabang leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Puerto Princesa 22: Luang Prabang leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Puerto Princesa 26: Puerto Princesa leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Puerto Princesa 12: Luang Prabang leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Puerto Princesa 45: Puerto Princesa leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Puerto Princesa 30: Luang Prabang leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Puerto Princesa 20: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Puerto Princesa 78: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Puerto Princesa 10: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Puerto Princesa 40: Luang Prabang leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
Best match
43match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa 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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPuerto Princesa
Official languageLaoEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190911
Elevation305 m98 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPuerto Princesa
City population53,792316,384
People per km²-133
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang or Puerto Princesa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.