VacationSelector
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Princesa or San Sebastian?

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 Puerto Princesa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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. Puerto Princesa 58, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Princesa 38, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Princesa 22, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Princesa 26, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Princesa 80, San Sebastian 72: Puerto Princesa leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Princesa 12, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 68 points.
Good for families. Puerto Princesa 45, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Puerto Princesa 30, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Princesa 20, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Puerto Princesa 78, San Sebastian 32: Puerto Princesa leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Princesa 10, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Princesa 40, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Princesa and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto PrincesaSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSan Sebastian
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation98 m6 m
Main airportPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSan Sebastian
City population316,384189,866
People per km²1333,118
Museums within 10 km114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.