VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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. Newport Beach 70, Penang 44: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Penang 86: Penang leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Penang 70: Penang leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Penang 40: Penang leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Penang 55: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Penang 42: Newport Beach leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Penang 52: Newport Beach leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Penang 40: Penang leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Penang 42: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Penang 78: Penang leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Penang 30: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Penang 42: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Penang.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Penang
Best match
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.

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachPenang

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPenang
Official language-Malay
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPenang
City population85,239794,313
People per km²622-
Museums within 10 km49
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Newport Beach 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.