VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The old Bath House in the Government Gardens, Rotorua
RotoruaThe old Bath House in the Government Gardens

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Rotorua by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Penang or Rotorua?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Rotorua for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotorua’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, Rotorua 33: Penang leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Rotorua 33: Penang leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Rotorua 38: Penang leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Rotorua 14: Penang leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Rotorua 45: Rotorua leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Rotorua 68: Rotorua leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Rotorua 30: Penang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Rotorua 22: Penang leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Rotorua 36: Penang leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang and Rotorua are level on 30.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Rotorua 86: Rotorua leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Rotorua.

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 prices with your weighting.

Rotorua
43match

Wins on wellness 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

Rotorua in July

11 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
113 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangRotorua

Where the figures come from

Rotorua 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). Rotorua: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangRotorua
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 m280 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsRotorua Regional Airport (ROT)7 km from centre3 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangRotorua
City population794,31358,500
People per km²-22
Museums within 10 km91
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Rotorua 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.