Penang (George Town)

Ren i Tang is a heritage gallery inside a restored 19th-century Chinese medicine hall on Beach Street. It preserves the original apothecary fittings while hosting contemporary art exhibitions.

George Town's UNESCO World Heritage Site is the historic core of Penang's capital, inscribed in 2008 as a unique example of a multicultural trading port where Malay, Chinese, Indian, and European communities have coexisted for over two centuries.

The Penang Botanic Gardens, locally called the Waterfall Gardens, cover 30 hectares of tropical landscape at the foot of Penang Hill. Dating to 1884, the gardens house a lily pond, orchid garden, cactus house, and a canopy walkway.

Guided walking food tours through George Town's hawker stalls, kopitiam coffee shops, and hidden kitchens offer the best introduction to Penang's legendary street-food culture.

Penang Hill (Bukit Bendera) rises 833 metres above sea level, offering cooler temperatures, colonial-era bungalows, and panoramic views stretching from George Town's skyline to the mainland coast. A Swiss-engineered funicular railway—the steepest tunnel funicular in Asia—carries visitors to the summit in about five minutes.

Penang National Park is the world's smallest national park at 2,562 hectares, encompassing coastal dipterocarp forest, mangrove swamps, mudflats, and several pristine beaches on the northwestern tip of Penang Island.

The Penang Peranakan Museum on Church Street occupies a restored 19th-century townhouse celebrating Baba-Nyonya heritage through period rooms, antique collections, and multimedia displays.

The Penang State Museum occupies a colonial-era building on Farquhar Street, tracing the island's multicultural history from early Malay maritime kingdoms through Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial periods to modern independence.

Penang Town Hall is a grand Edwardian Baroque building on the Esplanade, completed in 1903. Its white columned façade, ornamental balustrades, and domed clock tower make it one of the finest colonial administrative buildings in Southeast Asia.

Little India is a vibrant enclave centred on Jalan Pasar and Queen Street in George Town, filled with Indian textile shops, flower garland stalls, banana-leaf restaurants, and spice merchants.

Made in Penang Interactive Museum on Beach Street offers a playful, Instagram-friendly experience with 3D trick-art installations, cultural dioramas, and interactive exhibits themed around Penang.

Penang's street art trail is an open-air gallery of murals and steel-rod caricatures scattered across George Town's UNESCO heritage zone. The project, which transformed the old town into one of Asia's most Instagram-famous destinations, includes large-scale wall paintings by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic and 52 wrought-iron sculptures by a local collective.

The Penang War Museum occupies a 1930s British military fortress on Bukit Batu Maung. The hilltop complex of tunnels, barracks, and observation posts has been preserved as a memorial to the Japanese occupation during World War II.

Kek Lok Si Temple is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, sprawling across the hillside of Air Itam overlooking Penang island. Its signature seven-storey Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas blends Chinese, Thai, and Burmese architectural styles into a single ascending tower.

Batu Ferringhi is Penang's most popular beach destination, a 4-kilometre stretch of golden sand along the island's northern coast backed by resort hotels and a bustling night market.

The Batu Ferringhi Night Market is an evening bazaar stretching along the main road of Penang's beach resort strip with hundreds of stalls under string lights.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple on Queen Street is the oldest Hindu temple in Penang, featuring a richly sculpted 23-metre gopuram (entrance tower) adorned with hundreds of painted Hindu deities.

Kapitan Keling Mosque is Penang's oldest and most prominent mosque, a stunning white-domed structure on Jalan Buckingham in the heart of George Town's Street of Harmony.

Fort Cornwallis is the largest standing fort in Malaysia, occupying a strategic headland on the northeastern tip of Penang Island where Captain Francis Light first landed in 1786. Today the star-shaped fort is a landscaped park with cannons, a chapel, and historical displays.

Monkey Beach (Pantai Teluk Duyung) is a secluded sandy cove within Penang National Park, accessible only by a 1.5-hour jungle trek or a 15-minute boat ride from Teluk Bahang.