VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Penang for

  • beaches
  • 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. Oaxaca 5, Penang 44: Penang leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Penang 86: Penang leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Penang 70: Oaxaca leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca and Penang are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Penang 55: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Penang 42: Oaxaca leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Penang 52: Penang leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Penang 40: Oaxaca leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Penang 42: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Penang 78: Penang leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Penang 30: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Penang 42: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on beaches 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.

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
OaxacaPenang

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaPenang
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaMalay
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation1,555 m4 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaPenang
City population258,913794,313
People per km²3,028-
Museums within 10 km109
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Oaxaca 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.