VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Penang or Siena?

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
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Penang leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Siena 62: Penang leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Siena 78: Siena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Siena 27: Penang leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Siena 65: Siena leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Siena 94: Siena leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Siena 38: Penang leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Siena 60: Siena leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Siena 35: Penang leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Siena 42: Penang leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Siena 36: Siena leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Siena 55: Siena leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Siena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Penang
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangSiena

Where the figures come from

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangSiena
Official languageMalayItalian
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m322 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangSiena
City population794,31352,812
People per km²-446
Museums within 10 km930
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Siena 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.