VacationSelector
The Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala LumpurThe Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kuala Lumpur or Wilmington?

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

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Kuala Lumpur 82, Wilmington 48: Kuala Lumpur leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Kuala Lumpur 57, Wilmington 40: Kuala Lumpur leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Kuala Lumpur 54, Wilmington 40: Kuala Lumpur leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kuala Lumpur 47, Wilmington 58: Wilmington leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Kuala Lumpur 52, Wilmington 45: Kuala Lumpur leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Kuala Lumpur 64, Wilmington 62: Kuala Lumpur leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Kuala Lumpur 57, Wilmington 28: Kuala Lumpur leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Kuala Lumpur 66, Wilmington 33: Kuala Lumpur leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Kuala Lumpur 75, Wilmington 42: Kuala Lumpur leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kuala Lumpur 42, Wilmington 40: Kuala Lumpur leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kuala Lumpur 44, Wilmington 33: Kuala Lumpur leads by 11 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kuala Lumpur and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Kuala Lumpur
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

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

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
139 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Kuala LumpurWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKuala LumpurWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportKuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureKuala LumpurWilmington
City population9,000,280115,451
People per km²36,932839
Museums within 10 km252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kuala Lumpur or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.