Best Travel Guide Penang | ArrivalGuides.com

PenangGuide was updated: 2024-05-29

Although it is Malaysia’s smallest state, Penang Island (Pulau Pinang) is one of Asia’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan destinations, reflecting the influences of half a dozen cultures. Located off the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula and connected by road bridges, the island is the birthplace of tourism in Malaysia. Come for great beaches, a mellow climate, and a colourful collection of attractions, many claiming to be the largest, tallest, longest, or oldest of their kind.

Do & See

The city’s landmarks range from the colonial-era Fort Cornwallis and the 30-metre Jubilee Clock Tower on the waterfront Esplanade to the mighty Komtar Tower. George Town offers a fabulous choice of places to eat, drink, and shop. Batu Ferringhi, northwest of George Town, was Malaysia’s first international resort area. With fine sand, accommodation to suit all budgets, nightlife, watersports, and good shopping, it remains one of the region’s most popular and best-equipped beach destinations. Penang Bridge, the island’s road link to the mainland, was completed in 1988. Stretching 13.5 kilometres from Gelugor on Penang to Seberang Perai on the Malaysian Peninsula, it is the longest bridge in Southeast Asia.

Batu Ferringhi

Batu Ferringhi is Penang’s main resort area, featuring a long strip of hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops along the island's best beach. Most visitors end up staying here, as Batu Ferringhi offers a range of accommodation from cheap and cheerful guesthouses to five-star luxury hotels. The resort area also provides a wide variety of watersports, including water skiing, windsurfing, parasailing and scuba diving.

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Penang Hill

For a superb view over Penang and the Straits, take the funicular railway to the top of Bukit Bendera hill. The ride takes 30 minutes and the summit, 830 m (2,727 ft.) above sea level, is, with an average temperature of 3 degrees Celsius, cooler than the steamy coast.

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Snake Temple

Dozens of venomous pit vipers slither and coil among the urns, roof beams and potted trees within this bizarre Chinese temple, built in 1850, and sacred to the deity Chro Soo Kong. The snakes – regarded as benevolent spirits – are seen as guardians of the temple.

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Penang Botanical Gardens

Hundreds of palms, tropical trees, shrubs, ferns, orchids and other flowering plants grace the 30 hectares of grounds, glasshouses, ponds and nurseries at the Botanical Gardens. A popular picnic spot for local families, as well as for tourists stopping by for having a break from sightseeing.

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Entopia Butterfly Farm

Penang’s famous butterfly farm at Entopia Natureland is the world’s largest. With garden pavilions and breeding areas for more than 50 species of spectacularly colourful butterflies and insects, which all the same share this ecological space with a variety of other animal species such as invertebrates and small reptiles, up to 4,000 gorgeous living specimens can be seen at any time.

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Kek Lok Si Temple

Claimed as the largest Buddhist temple complex in southeast Asia, Kek Lok Si – the Temple of Paradise – is marked by the Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda and a statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. A newer temple to the Goddess was built in 2001-2002.

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