VacationSelector
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Fort Myers 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 Fort Myers for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Penang for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • 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. Fort Myers 77, Penang 44: Fort Myers leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Fort Myers 40, Penang 86: Penang leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Myers 32, Penang 70: Penang leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Fort Myers 32, Penang 40: Penang leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Myers 63, Penang 55: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Fort Myers 50, Penang 42: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Fort Myers 62, Penang 52: Fort Myers leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Fort Myers 15, Penang 40: Penang leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Myers 38, Penang 42: Penang leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Fort Myers 38, Penang 78: Penang leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Myers 36, Penang 30: Fort Myers leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Myers 35, Penang 42: Penang leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Myers and Penang.

Your match

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

Fort Myers
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
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.

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
30 °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
Fort MyersPenang

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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. Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort MyersPenang
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
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureFort MyersPenang
City population86,395794,313
People per km²681-
Museums within 10 km39
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C10 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Myers 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.