VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Amman 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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Penang for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • prices

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. Amman 22, Penang 44: Penang leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Penang 86: Penang leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Penang 70: Penang leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Penang 40: Penang leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Penang 55: Penang leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Penang 42: Amman leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Penang 52: Penang leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Penang 40: Penang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Amman and Penang are level on 42.
Affordability. Amman 58, Penang 78: Penang leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Penang 30: Penang leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Penang 42: Amman leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Penang.

Your match

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

Amman
45match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanPenang

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanPenang
Official languageArabicMalay
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation776 m4 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanPenang
City population4,007,526794,313
People per km²2,385-
Museums within 10 km89
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.