El Nido,Palawan VS The Maldives VS Thailand
 

I want to take a trip this summer either to el Nido in Palawan in the Philippines, Maafushi Island in the Maldives, or Krabi in Thailand.

I am leaning toward El Nido, but I cannot find any evidence of it having the kind of crystal clear BLUE water that characterises the Maldives or Thailand.

If anyone has been to el Nido and can confirm that the water at the beaches is crystal clear and BLUE, please do so!!!

Well, during summer on the Andaman coast in Thailand (where Krabi is) is the middle of rainy season, so you'd probably want to scratch that off your list if you're locked into visiting over the summer.

As for the rest, if you Google 'El Nido' and view just a handful of images, I think you'll find your question answered rather quickly.

It is rainy/typhoon season in July in the Philippines, so you may want to think about that. I can confirm that the water is very blue and beautiful, but July may not be the ideal season for it. Statistically there are more typhoons in August and September, but July can be rainy, especially in the north like El Nido. I live in Hong Kong which has similar weather, and while a clear day in July is wonderful, you could get days of rain instead. If you go to the far south or east you may get less rain, but I don’t know much about that.

It is the rainy season in the Maldives as well at that time. In my experience, that tends to mean really big but lovely thunderstorms in the late afternoon. But it is windier and choppier so diving may not be as good then. It is slightly less rainy in the southern part of the Maldives, such as the Gan area.

Krabi is rainy as well as noted above. This is all part of the same weather system.

Take a look at sites like weatherbase.com which give rainfall averages. If you have to go in July I would probably choose the Maldives as having the best chance for good weather. The Philippines would be second, as there is always a chance that there will be no rain. Krabi is quite certain to have quite a lot of rain at that time.

You could go to the EAST coast of Thailand (Koh Samui) or Malaysia (Redang islands area or someplace like Rawa), as that is quite dry in July. Very lovely water as well.