VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Penang or Venice?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Venice for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Venice leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Venice 60: Penang leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Venice 94: Venice leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Venice 27: Penang leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Venice 45: Penang leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Venice 86: Venice leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Venice 45: Penang leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Venice 68: Venice leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Venice 57: Venice leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Venice 20: Penang leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Venice 62: Venice leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Venice 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 Venice.

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.

Venice
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangVenice
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 m2 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangVenice
City population794,313250,369
People per km²-602
Museums within 10 km952
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang or Venice 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.