VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Penang for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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. Johannesburg 5, Penang 44: Penang leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Penang 86: Penang leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Penang 70: Penang leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Penang 40: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg and Penang are level on 55.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Penang 42: Johannesburg leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Penang 52: Penang leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Penang 40: Penang leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Penang 42: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Penang 78: Penang leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Penang 30: Johannesburg leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 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: Johannesburg and Penang.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
JohannesburgPenang

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPenang
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageMalay
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation1,753 m4 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPenang
City population4,803,262794,313
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km149
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 Johannesburg 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.