VacationSelector
The Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala LumpurThe Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Kuala Lumpur or New York?

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 Kuala Lumpur for

  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. Kuala Lumpur 12, New York 50: New York leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Kuala Lumpur 82, New York 92: New York leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Kuala Lumpur 57, New York 89: New York leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Kuala Lumpur 54, New York 97: New York leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kuala Lumpur 47, New York 55: New York leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kuala Lumpur 52, New York 68: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Kuala Lumpur 64, New York 70: New York leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Kuala Lumpur 57, New York 82: New York leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Kuala Lumpur 66, New York 97: New York leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Kuala Lumpur 75, New York 12: Kuala Lumpur leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kuala Lumpur 42, New York 99: New York leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kuala Lumpur 44, New York 42: Kuala Lumpur leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kuala Lumpur and New York.

Your match

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

Kuala Lumpur
54match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kuala Lumpur in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
139 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Kuala LumpurNew York

Where the figures come from

Kuala Lumpur's temperatures are measured 46 km from the centre, at Sepang/KL International Airport.

Kuala Lumpur 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. Kuala Lumpur: 1991-2020 normals, Sepang/KL International Airport (46.1 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKuala LumpurNew York
Official languageMalay-
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation50 m25 m
Main airportKuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKuala LumpurNew York
City population9,000,2808,804,190
People per km²36,9327,256
Museums within 10 km25157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kuala Lumpur or New York 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.