VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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. Limassol 77, Penang 44: Limassol leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Penang 86: Penang leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Penang 70: Penang leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Penang 40: Limassol leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Penang 55: Limassol leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Penang 42: Limassol leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Penang 52: Limassol leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Penang 40: Penang leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol and Penang are level on 42.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Penang 78: Penang leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Penang 30: Limassol leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol and Penang are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Limassol and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Limassol
52match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Penang
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.

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 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
LimassolPenang

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolPenang
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation10 m4 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolPenang
City population107,970794,313
People per km²2,405-
Museums within 10 km29
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Penang somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.