VacationSelector
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside

Photos: Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License; Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Pattaya 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 Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Penang for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Pattaya 66, Penang 44: Pattaya leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Pattaya 58, Penang 86: Penang leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Pattaya 30, Penang 70: Penang leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Pattaya 76, Penang 40: Pattaya leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Pattaya 40, Penang 55: Penang leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Pattaya 52, Penang 42: Pattaya leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Pattaya 55, Penang 52: Pattaya leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Pattaya 36, Penang 40: Penang leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Pattaya and Penang are level on 42.
Affordability. Pattaya 84, Penang 78: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Pattaya and Penang are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Pattaya 58, Penang 42: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Pattaya and Penang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Pattaya
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Penang
52match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
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
PattayaPenang

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre). Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePattayaPenang
Official languageThaiMalay
CurrencyBaht (THB)Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199999
Elevation35 m4 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePattayaPenang
City population119,532794,313
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pattaya or Penang somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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.