VacationSelector
Kek Lok Si temple on the hillside, Penang
PenangKek Lok Si temple on the hillside
The Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta
YogyakartaThe Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta

Photos: Penang by Supanut Arunoprayote, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Yogyakarta by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Penang or Yogyakarta?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Yogyakarta for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Yogyakarta’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, Yogyakarta 22: Penang leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Penang 86, Yogyakarta 62: Penang leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Penang 70, Yogyakarta 68: Penang leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Penang 40, Yogyakarta 32: Penang leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Penang 55, Yogyakarta 72: Yogyakarta leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Penang 42, Yogyakarta 78: Yogyakarta leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Penang 52, Yogyakarta 40: Penang leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Penang 40, Yogyakarta 35: Penang leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Penang 42, Yogyakarta 52: Yogyakarta leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Penang 78, Yogyakarta 92: Yogyakarta leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Penang 30, Yogyakarta 58: Yogyakarta leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Penang 42, Yogyakarta 50: Yogyakarta leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Penang and Yogyakarta.

Your match

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

Penang
52match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

Yogyakarta
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
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Yogyakarta in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
PenangYogyakarta

Where the figures come from

Yogyakarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Penang: 1991-2020 normals, Penang / Bayan Lepas (14.5 km from centre). Yogyakarta: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasurePenangYogyakarta
Official languageMalayIndonesian
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+7
Emergency number999112
Elevation4 m113 m
Main airportPenang International Airport (PEN)14 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsYogyakarta International Airport (YIA)39 km from centre20 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasurePenangYogyakarta
City population794,313422,732
People per km²-13,007
Museums within 10 km938
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Penang or Yogyakarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.