VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

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

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Madrid 5, Puerto Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Puerto Princesa 38: Madrid leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Puerto Princesa 22: Madrid leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Puerto Princesa 26: Madrid leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Puerto Princesa 12: Madrid leads by 77 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Puerto Princesa 45: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Puerto Princesa 30: Madrid leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Puerto Princesa 20: Madrid leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Puerto Princesa 10: Madrid leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Puerto Princesa 40: Puerto Princesa leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridPuerto 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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMadridPuerto Princesa
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m98 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPuerto Princesa
City population3,506,730316,384
People per km²5,801133
Museums within 10 km881
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Madrid 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). 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. 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. 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.