VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Penang or San Juan?

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 San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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, San Juan 84: San Juan leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, San Juan 66: Penang leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, San Juan 64: Penang leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, San Juan 52: San Juan leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, San Juan 38: Penang leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, San Juan 50: San Juan leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, San Juan 38: Penang leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, San Juan 55: San Juan leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, San Juan 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 San Juan.

Your match

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

Penang
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSan Juan

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). San Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangSan Juan
Official languageMalaySpanish, English
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m3 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-21 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSan Juan
City population794,313342,259
People per km²-2,847
Museums within 10 km918
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 San Juan 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. 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.