VacationSelector
The old town hall, Boca Raton
Boca RatonThe old town hall
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Boca Raton by Spudgun67, CC0; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Boca Raton 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 Boca Raton for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Boca Raton 82, Penang 44: Boca Raton leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Boca Raton 44, Penang 86: Penang leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Boca Raton 28, Penang 70: Penang leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Boca Raton 32, Penang 40: Penang leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boca Raton 50, Penang 55: Penang leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Boca Raton 60, Penang 42: Boca Raton leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Boca Raton 62, Penang 52: Boca Raton leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Boca Raton 18, Penang 40: Penang leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Boca Raton 54, Penang 42: Boca Raton leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Boca Raton 22, Penang 78: Penang leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boca Raton 33, Penang 30: Boca Raton leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boca Raton and Penang are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boca Raton and Penang.

Your match

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

Boca Raton
44match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
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.

Boca Raton in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
191 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 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
Boca RatonPenang

Where the figures come from

Boca Raton 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. Boca Raton: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Pompano Beach / Kendall Green (13.6 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBoca RatonPenang
Official language-Malay
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation4 m4 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)33 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBoca RatonPenang
City population97,422794,313
People per km²1,203-
Museums within 10 km59
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boca Raton 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.