VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Penang or Portofino?

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

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Portofino 36: Penang leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Portofino 22: Penang leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Portofino 14: Penang leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Portofino 33: Penang leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Portofino 29: Penang leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Portofino 9: Penang leads by 69 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Portofino 7: Penang leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang and Portofino are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Portofino.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangPortofino
Official languageMalayItalian
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m20 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangPortofino
City population794,313355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.