VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Manila or Sorrento?

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 Manila for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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. Manila 12, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Sorrento 60: Manila leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Sorrento 32: Manila leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Sorrento 28: Manila leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Manila and Sorrento are level on 42.
Getting around. Manila 26, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Sorrento 38: Manila leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Sorrento 32: Manila leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Sorrento 20: Manila leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaSorrento
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishItalian
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation9 m50 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaSorrento
City population1,902,59015,407
People per km²76,1041,541
Museums within 10 km276
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manila or Sorrento 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.