VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Galway 28, Penang 44: Penang leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Penang 86: Penang leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Penang 70: Penang leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Penang 40: Galway leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Penang 55: Galway leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Penang 42: Galway leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Penang 52: Penang leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Penang 40: Galway leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Penang 42: Penang leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Penang 78: Penang leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Penang 30: Galway leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Penang 42: Penang leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Penang.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °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
GalwayPenang

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayPenang
Official languageEnglish, IrishMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation25 m4 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayPenang
City population83,456794,313
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Galway 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.