VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Penang or Porto?

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 Penang for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Porto for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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. Penang 44, Porto 40: Penang leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Porto 70: Penang leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Porto 68: Penang leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Porto 65: Porto leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Porto 64: Porto leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Porto 79: Porto leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Penang and Porto are level on 52.
Getting around. Penang 40, Porto 66: Porto leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Porto 52: Porto leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Porto 62: Penang leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Porto 52: Porto leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Porto 34: Penang leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Porto.

Your match

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

Penang
52match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangPorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangPorto
Official languageMalayPortuguese
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m104 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangPorto
City population794,313273,476
People per km²-6,606
Museums within 10 km942
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang or Porto 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.