VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Macau 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 Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

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. Macau 24, Puerto Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Puerto Princesa 38: Macau leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Puerto Princesa 22: Macau leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Puerto Princesa 26: Macau leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 75 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Puerto Princesa 12: Macau leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Puerto Princesa 45: Macau leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Puerto Princesa 30: Macau leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Puerto Princesa 20: Macau leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Puerto Princesa 10: Macau leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau and Puerto Princesa are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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
MacauPuerto 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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMacauPuerto Princesa
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m98 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 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

MeasureMacauPuerto Princesa
City population682,100316,384
People per km²5,916133
Museums within 10 km281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.