VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Penang or Puerto Princesa?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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, Puerto Princesa 58: Puerto Princesa leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Puerto Princesa 38: Penang leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Puerto Princesa 22: Penang leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Puerto Princesa 26: Penang leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Puerto Princesa 12: Penang leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Puerto Princesa 45: Penang leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Puerto Princesa 30: Penang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Puerto Princesa 20: Penang leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Penang and Puerto Princesa are level on 78.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Puerto Princesa 10: Penang leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Puerto Princesa 40: Penang leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangPuerto Princesa
Official languageMalayEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m98 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangPuerto Princesa
City population794,313316,384
People per km²-133
Museums within 10 km91
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Penang or Puerto Princesa 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.