VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Penang for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Luxor 6, Penang 44: Penang leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Penang 86: Penang leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Penang 70: Luxor leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Penang 40: Penang leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Penang 55: Penang leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Penang 42: Luxor leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Penang 52: Penang leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Penang 40: Penang leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Penang 42: Penang leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Penang 78: Luxor leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Penang 30: Penang leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 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: Luxor and Penang.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Penang in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
189 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
LuxorPenang

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuxorPenang
Official languageArabicMalay
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180999
Elevation89 m4 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorPenang
City population202,232794,313
People per km²486-
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Luxor 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). 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. 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.