VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
Castle Square and the Royal Castle, Warsaw
WarsawCastle Square and the Royal Castle

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Warsaw by Raymond Petrik, Pexels License.

Penang or Warsaw?

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

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Warsaw for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Warsaw’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, Warsaw 12: Penang leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Warsaw 60: Penang leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Penang and Warsaw are level on 70.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Warsaw 66: Warsaw leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Warsaw 47: Penang leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Warsaw 52: Warsaw leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Warsaw 62: Warsaw leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Warsaw 72: Warsaw leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Warsaw 55: Warsaw leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Warsaw 64: Penang leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Warsaw 63: Warsaw leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Warsaw 35: Penang leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Warsaw.

Your match

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

Penang
52match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Warsaw
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Warsaw in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangWarsaw

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePenangWarsaw
Official languageMalayPolish
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m118 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsWarsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre172 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePenangWarsaw
City population794,3131,862,402
People per km²-3,601
Museums within 10 km9117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Warsaw 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.