VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Penang or Valparaiso?

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
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Penang leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Valparaiso 50: Penang leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Valparaiso 62: Penang leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Valparaiso 33: Penang leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Valparaiso 30: Penang leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Valparaiso 60: Penang leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Valparaiso 18: Penang leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Valparaiso.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on day trips 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
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangValparaiso
Official languageMalaySpanish
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number999Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation4 m21 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangValparaiso
City population794,313296,655
People per km²-6,180
Museums within 10 km917
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Valparaiso 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.