VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

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

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

Choose Penang for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Cardiff 30, Penang 44: Penang leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Penang 86: Penang leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Penang 70: Penang leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Penang 40: Cardiff leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Penang 55: Cardiff leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Penang 42: Cardiff leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Penang 52: Cardiff leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Penang 40: Cardiff leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Penang 42: Cardiff leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Penang 78: Penang leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Penang 30: Cardiff leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Penang 42: Penang leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff 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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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
CardiffPenang

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffPenang
Official languageEnglishMalay
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999999
Elevation41 m4 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffPenang
City population383,536794,313
People per km²2,734-
Museums within 10 km99
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Cardiff 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.