VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Marseille 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 Marseille for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Marseille 72, Penang 44: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Penang 86: Penang leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Penang 70: Penang leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Penang 40: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Penang 55: Marseille leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Penang 42: Marseille leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Marseille 50, Penang 52: Penang leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Penang 40: Marseille leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Penang 42: Marseille leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Penang 78: Penang leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Penang 30: Marseille leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Penang 42: Penang leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marseille and Penang.

Your match

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

Marseille
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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
MarseillePenang

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseillePenang
Official languageFrenchMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation0 m4 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMarseillePenang
City population886,040794,313
People per km²3,683-
Museums within 10 km279
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marseille 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. 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.