VacationSelector
Your rainbow panorama on top of ARoS, Aarhus
AarhusYour rainbow panorama on top of ARoS
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Aarhus by Mozzihh, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Aarhus or Penang?

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 Aarhus for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Penang’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. Aarhus 34, Penang 44: Penang leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Aarhus 57, Penang 86: Penang leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Aarhus 61, Penang 70: Penang leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Aarhus 45, Penang 40: Aarhus leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aarhus 56, Penang 55: Aarhus leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Aarhus 63, Penang 42: Aarhus leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Aarhus 70, Penang 52: Aarhus leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Aarhus 75, Penang 40: Aarhus leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Aarhus 47, Penang 42: Aarhus leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Aarhus 22, Penang 78: Penang leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aarhus 55, Penang 30: Aarhus leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aarhus 44, Penang 42: Aarhus leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aarhus and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Aarhus
52match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on prices 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.

Aarhus in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
17 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AarhusPenang

Where the figures come from

Aarhus's temperatures are measured 30 km from the centre, at Tirstrup.

Aarhus 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aarhus: 1991-2020 normals, Tirstrup (29.8 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAarhusPenang
Official languageDanishMalay
CurrencyDanish Krone (DKK)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCEFK230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation6 m4 m
Main airportAarhus Airport (AAR)30 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAarhusPenang
City population290,598794,313
People per km²3,193-
Museums within 10 km179
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aarhus or Penang 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.