VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • 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. Cancun 98, Penang 44: Cancun leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Penang 86: Penang leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Penang 70: Penang leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Penang 40: Cancun leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Penang 55: Cancun leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Penang 42: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Penang 52: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Penang 40: Penang leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Penang 42: Penang leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Penang 78: Penang leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Penang 30: Penang leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Penang 42: Cancun leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun 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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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
CancunPenang

Where the figures come from

Cancun 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunPenang
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaMalay
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation5 m4 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunPenang
City population888,797794,313
Museums within 10 km19
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 Cancun or Penang 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. 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.