VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Penang or Virginia Beach?

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 Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Virginia Beach 42: Penang leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Virginia Beach 30: Penang leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Virginia Beach 37: Penang leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Virginia Beach 27: Penang leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Virginia Beach 32: Penang leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Virginia Beach 40: Penang leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Virginia Beach 32: Penang leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Virginia Beach.

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.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangVirginia Beach
Official languageMalay-
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation4 m7 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangVirginia Beach
City population794,313459,470
Museums within 10 km92
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.