VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

Penang or Victoria?

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 Victoria for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Penang leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Victoria 50: Penang leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Victoria 42: Penang leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Victoria 30: Penang leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Victoria 54: Victoria leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Victoria 40: Penang leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Victoria 34: Penang leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Victoria.

Your match

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

Penang
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangVictoria

Where the figures come from

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangVictoria
Official languageMalayFrench, English
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m23 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangVictoria
City population794,31391,867
People per km²-4,711
Museums within 10 km96
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Victoria 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.