VacationSelector
Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, Naples
NaplesCastel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Naples by pietro scerrato, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Naples 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 Naples for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Penang for

  • prices
  • families
  • 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. Naples 50, Penang 44: Naples leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Naples 83, Penang 86: Penang leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Naples 87, Penang 70: Naples leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Naples 60, Penang 40: Naples leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Naples 77, Penang 55: Naples leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Naples 96, Penang 42: Naples leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Naples 45, Penang 52: Penang leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Naples 54, Penang 40: Naples leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Naples 60, Penang 42: Naples leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Naples 63, Penang 78: Penang leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Naples 66, Penang 30: Naples leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Naples 44, Penang 42: Naples leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Naples and Penang.

Your match

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

Naples
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on prices and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Naples in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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
NaplesPenang

Where the figures come from

Naples 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.

Naples's sunshine is measured 28 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Naples: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Napoli / Capodichino (4.6 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNaplesPenang
Official languageItalianMalay
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation17 m4 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNaplesPenang
City population913,462794,313
People per km²7,676-
Museums within 10 km659
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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