Manila or Singapore?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Manila if you are travelling in its dry winter window, want the warmer end of the tropics, and prefer a city with more museums and more attractions close to the centre.
Choose Singapore if eating out matters most, or if you want beaches within easy reach, a denser walkable centre and more going on after dark, all at a steady 31-32°C with rain in every month of the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Singapore leads by 24 points.24
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 100 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 42 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 2 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 2 km |
Places to eat. Singapore leads by 29 points.29
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 87 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,015 | 4,115 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 17 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Manila and Singapore are level on 50.
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 77 | 57 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 30 | 46 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Singapore leads by 13 points.13
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,082 | 1,973 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 374 | 1,393 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 35 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 36 | 77 |
Nature & day trips. Singapore leads by 5 points.5
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 34 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 78 | 53 |
| Park area within 2 km | 54 hectares | 156 hectares |
Good for families. Singapore leads by 8 points.8
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 68 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 28 |
| Park area within 2 km | 54 hectares | 156 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Singapore leads by 14 points.14
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 66 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 172 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Manila leads by 20 points.20
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 70 |
| Price level global | 33.7 | 62 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Singapore leads by 1 points.1
| Manila | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 30.5 °C to 34.6 °C | 30.6 °C to 32.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 24 mm to 564 mm | 109 mm to 329 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 0 |
Where they differ
Manila runs warmer, with daytime highs of 31-35°C across the year against Singapore's 31-32°C, and it has 4 months where rain stays at 40mm or less, where Singapore has none. It also holds somewhat more museums, somewhat more tourist attractions near the centre, and more protected land around it.
Singapore has far more restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, about twice as many bars and nightclubs, most of them central, twice as many notable places within walking distance, and 42 beaches nearby against Manila's 3.
Where they are alike
Museums and heritage is where they sit closest. Each has 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, Manila carries somewhat more museums, and Singapore keeps its own tightly around the centre, so a heritage day works in either.
They are also alike on climate and on what lies beyond the city. The sea is 2km from both centres and warm enough to swim in for all 12 months, and neither has much protected country nearby for longer trips out.
Which traveller are you?
If eating and going out shape the trip, Singapore: many more restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and about twice as many bars and nightclubs, most of them close in.
Families lean Singapore too, with 42 beaches nearby against Manila's 3, 5 theme parks against 3, and roughly three times as much park space near the centre. Manila answers with somewhat more tourist attractions close in.
For a museum-led break the two are level. Manila holds somewhat more museums; Singapore packs its own, plus about twice as many notable places, into a walkable centre, which suits a short stay.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible between these two. The dataset carries no daily budget figure for either city, so nothing here supports calling one cheaper than the other, and the value standing rests on a different measure entirely.
The sunshine figure is missing for Manila, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Beach counts have limits too: Singapore's 42 beaches serve a population of 5.87 million, and a count says nothing about how crowded the sand gets in the drier stretches of the year.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Singapore: 1991-2020 normals, Singapore / Changi Airport (17 km from centre).
Manila is the better pick from December to February, when rain drops to 24-26mm in the driest months and highs sit near 31°C. June to September brings 314-564mm and is best avoided.
Singapore barely shifts: 31-32°C all year and rain in every month. It is the steadier choice from May to September, at 124-165mm, exactly when Manila is at its wettest. Its own heaviest stretch is November to January, at 227-329mm, when Manila is drying out.
Getting there
| Flying from | Manila | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 4 h 10 m €304-317 MNL · 11 km | 6 h 55 m €310-338 SIN · 17 km |
| Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB | 3 h 35 m €159-184 1 stop MNL · 11 km | 1 h 0 m €85-88 SIN · 17 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 3 h 45 m €191-223 MNL · 11 km | 6 h 5 m €240-286 1 stop SIN · 17 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 2 h 50 m €210-218 1 stop MNL · 11 km | 5 h 10 m €214-241 SIN · 17 km |
| Denpasar (Bali)DPS | 3 h 50 m €345-396 MNL · 11 km | 2 h 40 m €188-241 SIN · 17 km |
| JakartaCGK, HLP | 3 h 55 m no fares MNL · 11 km | 1 h 40 m €145-152 SIN · 17 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 2 h 0 m €128-135 MNL · 11 km | 3 h 40 m €240-261 1 stop SIN · 17 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 13 h 20 m no fares MNL · 11 km | 13 h 15 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 13 h 55 m €628-629 1 stop MNL · 11 km | 16 h 40 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
| JeddahJED | 10 h 45 m no fares MNL · 11 km | 9 h 20 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Manila | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English, Filipino, Taglish | English, Tamil, Malay, Standard Chinese |
| Currency | Philippine Peso (PHP) | Singapore Dollar (SGD) |
| Sockets | ABC220 V, 60 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+8 | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 999, ambulance 995, fire 995 |
| Elevation | 9 m | 21 m |
| Main airport | Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre88 non-stop destinations | Singapore Changi Airport (SIN)17 km from centre165 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 18 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Manila | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,902,590 | 5,866,139 |
| People per km² | 76,104 | 8,158 |
| Museums within 10 km | 27 | 40 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 39 | 107 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manila or Singapore somewhere new.