Enjoy Asia Today

city in Malaysia

George Town

A UNESCO-listed port of shophouses, clan jetties and clan-temple lanes, George Town is the food capital of the peninsula and the easiest place in Malaysia to walk.

Best time

December to March is the drier stretch on the west coast. April to May and October bring inter-monsoon afternoon storms, and September can carry haze.

At a glance

Cost per day €3481 Rate 2026-08-26 mid-range, per person
Time to give it 3 days on a first visit
Best for Hawker foodHeritage streetsWalking
Eat
Asam laksa, €23 Rate 2026-08-26. The stall working one main pot with a queue and fresh herbs going in, not the air-conditioned restaurant version thickened with sugar.
Book ahead
Nothing needs booking far ahead except a heritage shophouse room, which is limited stock; add a week or two around Chinese New Year and Thaipusam.
Skip
The full mural checklist on a hot afternoon. The famous ones are within a few streets of each other and the rest cost you an hour of traffic each.

The heritage core is small enough to walk end to end in an hour, which is the whole argument for staying here. Armenian Street, the clan jetties and the Khoo Kongsi clan house sit within a few blocks, and the shophouse lanes reward being crossed twice at different hours rather than once with a list. Entry to Khoo Kongsi is about €2.50 and the Peranakan Mansion around €5. Walk before ten in the morning and after five, and give the middle of the day to a museum, a kopitiam or the hill.

Penang Hill is the reliable afternoon: the funicular is about €6 return for visitors and drops the temperature by five or six degrees. Kek Lok Si temple sits at the foot of the same hill and is free to enter, with a small charge for the inclined lift to the pagoda. Both are a €3 to €5 ride from the old town, and both are better on a weekday.

Food is the reason people come back. Asam laksa, char kway teow and hokkien mee are €1.50 to €3 a plate at the hawker centres on Chulia Street, Kimberley Street and Gurney Drive, and the good stalls are the specialists with one dish and a queue. A dorm bed is €7 to €11, a heritage shophouse double is €30 to €60, and a mid-range hotel with a pool is €40 to €70. Getting here from Kuala Lumpur is a four-hour ETS train to Butterworth for €12 to €16, then the ferry or a bridge taxi across.

Sources