VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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. Interlaken 30, Penang 44: Penang leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Penang 86: Penang leads by 61 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Penang 70: Penang leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Penang 40: Penang leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Penang 55: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Penang 42: Interlaken leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Penang 52: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Penang 40: Interlaken leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Penang 42: Penang leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Penang 78: Penang leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Penang 30: Penang leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Penang 42: Penang leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Penang.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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
InterlakenPenang

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenPenang
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshMalay
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation571 m4 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenPenang
City population6,123794,313
People per km²1,424-
Museums within 10 km39
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.