VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Penang or Victoria Falls?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Victoria Falls for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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 Falls 7: Penang leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Victoria Falls 24: Penang leads by 62 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Victoria Falls 12: Penang leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Victoria Falls 8: Penang leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Victoria Falls 22: Penang leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Victoria Falls 38: Penang leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Victoria Falls 45: Victoria Falls leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Victoria Falls 18: Penang leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Victoria Falls 32: Penang leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Victoria Falls 10: Penang leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Victoria Falls 34: Penang leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Victoria Falls.

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.

Victoria Falls
29match

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
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangVictoria Falls

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangVictoria Falls
Official languageMalayEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2
Emergency number999999
Elevation4 m961 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangVictoria Falls
City population794,31333,060
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Victoria Falls 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.