VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Penang or Queenstown?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Penang leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Queenstown 45: Penang leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Queenstown 12: Penang leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Queenstown 42: Queenstown leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Queenstown 50: Queenstown leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Queenstown 60: Queenstown leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Queenstown 45: Queenstown leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Queenstown 28: Penang leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Queenstown 20: Penang leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Queenstown 14: Penang leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang and Queenstown are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No seasea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangQueenstown

Where the figures come from

Queenstown 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). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangQueenstown
Official languageMalayEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number999111
Elevation4 m324 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangQueenstown
City population794,31329,000
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang or Queenstown 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.