Photos: Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Kuala Lumpur or West Palm Beach?
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
- food and drink
- getting around
What lies behind each score is written up on Kuala Lumpur’s own page.
Choose West Palm Beach for
- beaches
- nature and the outdoors
- live music and the arts
What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kuala Lumpur and West Palm Beach.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.
Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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
West Palm Beach in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Kuala Lumpur | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Malay | - |
| Currency | Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | G240 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+8 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 999 | 911 |
| Elevation | 50 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinations | President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | - | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Kuala Lumpur | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 9,000,280 | 117,415 |
| People per km² | 36,932 | 786 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 4 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kuala Lumpur or West Palm Beach somewhere new.