VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Medellin 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 Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Penang for

  • beaches
  • 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. Medellin 5, Penang 44: Penang leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Penang 86: Penang leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Penang 70: Penang leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Penang 40: Medellin leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Penang 55: Medellin leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Penang 42: Medellin leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Penang 52: Penang leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Penang 40: Medellin leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Penang 42: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Penang 78: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Penang 30: Medellin leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Penang 42: Penang leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on beaches 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.

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No seasea
12 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinPenang

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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. Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinPenang
Official languageSpanishMalay
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number123999
Elevation1,405 m4 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinPenang
City population2,529,403794,313
People per km²6,644-
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Medellin 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.