VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Penang or Santa Marta?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’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, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Santa Marta 44: Penang leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Santa Marta 34: Penang leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Santa Marta 38: Penang leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Santa Marta 40: Penang leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Santa Marta 38: Penang leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Santa Marta 27: Penang leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Santa Marta 17: Penang leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Santa Marta 30: Penang leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Santa Marta.

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.

Santa Marta
46match

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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangSanta Marta
Official languageMalaySpanish
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number999123
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSanta Marta
City population794,313505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km93
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 Santa Marta 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.