Backpacking Penang
You go to Penang to eat. That is not a side plan, it is the whole plan. A bowl of asam laksa, sour with tamarind and thick with mackerel, costs about €1.50, and you eat it on a plastic stool next to a wok where somebody has been cooking the same dish for forty years. You order a second one. Then you walk to the next stall.
Wrapped around all that food is George Town, Unesco World Heritage since 2008. Chinese shophouses with pastel shutters, clan houses dripping with woodcarving, a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple within a few hundred metres of each other. Ernest Zacharevic’s kids ride their bikes across the walls, and down by the harbour the clan jetties stand on stilts over the water: wooden villages where families have lived for generations. You walk all of it, or hop on the free CAT bus that loops the centre.
Penang costs more than Thailand, the beer especially, but €25 a day goes a long way: a bed for about €8 and plates for a couple of euros. Three days covers the things to do in Penang: the old town, Penang Hill and the national park. Food lovers stay longer. Most people are food lovers.
Why Penang is popular with backpackers
- The best street food in Malaysia
- An old town you explore entirely on foot
- Street art on the walls of George Town
- Chinese, Malay and Indian culture all mixed together
- Sociable hostels in historic shophouses
- Penang Hill and a national park a bus ride away
- A free bus round the centre
- Easy connections to Langkawi, the Cameron Highlands and Thailand
Best time to visit Penang
Penang sits on the west coast of the peninsula and is warm all year. The driest months fall around New Year, the wettest in autumn.
Rain is rarely a disaster here. A shower usually lasts an hour, and George Town was built with covered walkways along the shophouses, the five-foot ways, so you keep walking and stay dry.
Backpacker budget: around €25 a day
- €8hostel bed
- €2local meal
- €3beer
- €0.50bus ride on the island
Guide prices for a backpacker's day in Penang. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best area for backpackers
George Town: around Chulia Street and Love Lane
Almost every backpacker sleeps in the old centre of George Town, in the streets around Chulia Street and Love Lane. This is where the hostels are, the bars, and at night the food stalls along the kerb.
Everything you want to see in town is walkable: the street art around Armenian Street, the clan jetties on the water, Little India and the old colonial quarter by Fort Cornwallis. The free CAT bus and the buses to Penang Hill and the national park leave a few streets away.
Lively, not wild. Love Lane has a handful of bars, Chulia Street feeds you until late, and one street over it is already quiet.
Why stay in George Town?
- Practically every backpacker bed on the island
- Street art and temples within walking distance
- Food stalls until late at night
- Bars on Love Lane
- The free CAT bus round the centre
- Buses to Penang Hill and the national park
- You sleep in a historic shophouse
In George Town you eat, sleep and walk your days full. Batu Ferringhi on the north coast is your beach for an afternoon, an easy bus ride away.
Best hostels in Penang
EZ Social Hostel
A hostel and a bar in one, inside a Unesco listed building more than a hundred years old. By day people work in the café, by night everyone is downstairs at the bar, and if you want an early night they hand you earplugs at check-in. Breakfast is included.
Made for solo travellers, sociable backpackers and digital nomads.
House of Journey
A family run hostel in a restored historic shophouse, a few minutes’ walk from Love Lane and the Chulia Street stalls. Rooftop terrace for sunset, a pool table and free breakfast. More than three thousand reviews make it one of George Town’s fixtures.
Good for a first time in Penang, solo travellers, and anyone after a social but calm vibe.
Some Place Else
Capsules, done properly: every bed has its own light, air con, socket and locker. Ten minutes’ walk from the bus station and the ferry, with the street art and Chew Jetty round the corner.
For people who want to actually sleep, want privacy for a dorm price, or are only passing through.
Best things to do in Penang
Hunting street art in George Town
In 2012 the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic painted a series of murals across George Town, and the city has been an open air gallery ever since. The famous one is Children on a Bicycle on Armenian Street: two kids on a real bike, bolted to the wall.
Why go?
- Murals you can step right into
- Iron cartoon sculptures on the walls that tell each street’s history
- It walks you through the prettiest streets of the old town
- You find new ones every day
Skip the map of every mural. Just wander and you will run into them.
Clan jetties
Wooden villages on stilts in the water, built by Chinese families who each had their own jetty. Chew Jetty is the famous one, with little shops and places to eat; the other jetties are quieter.
Highlights
- Wooden houses standing over the water
- Views across the sea to the mainland
- Tiny temples at the end of the jetties
- A slice of Penang as it was a hundred years ago
After Chew Jetty, keep walking to one of the smaller ones. Often you will have it completely to yourself.
Hawker food: Gurney Drive and Chulia Street
This is what Penang is about. A hawker centre is a covered square packed with stalls where every cook makes one dish, and you wander round ordering from whoever you like. Gurney Drive on the seafront is the famous one, Chulia Street in the centre the easiest.
Why go?
- Asam laksa, char kway teow and satay in one square
- A couple of euros and you eat until you cannot
- Local crowd, no tourist menu
- Every stall has its own speciality
Grab a table, remember its number, and give that number at every stall you order from. They bring it to you.
Penang Hill
Penang Hill is 833 metres high, and you go up on a funicular that climbs steeply through the forest. At the top it is a few degrees cooler and you look out over George Town, the bridge to the mainland and the sea.
Highlights
- Views over the whole island
- Cooler air than down in town
- Rainforest trails at the top
- Sunset over George Town
Pair it with Kek Lok Si, which sits at the foot of the same hill.
Kek Lok Si
The biggest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia. It climbs the hillside at Air Itam in terraces, with a seven storey pagoda and, right at the top, a huge bronze statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy.
Why go?
- The largest temple complex in the country
- Thousands of Buddha statues inside the pagoda
- Views over Air Itam and the city
- Around Chinese New Year it is lit up at night with thousands of lanterns
Penang National Park
In the north west of the island is one of the smallest national parks in Malaysia: rainforest running right down to the sea, with trails to empty beaches. Turtle Beach, Pantai Kerachut, is the best known.
Perfect for
- Hiking through the rainforest
- A beach with nothing built on it
- Spotting monkeys and monitor lizards
- A day out of the city
Take plenty of water. There is nothing to buy along the way.
Penang itinerary: two or three days
A food city with a mountain and a jungle next door. Pick how many days you have.
George Town on foot. Start early with the street art around Armenian Street, walk through Little India and past the clan houses, and finish on the water at Chew Jetty and the other clan jetties.
Tonight: the food stalls on Chulia Street and a beer on Love Lane.
Kek Lok Si and Penang Hill. Bus to Air Itam for the temple complex, asam laksa at the market below, and late in the afternoon the funicular to the top of Penang Hill.
Tonight: Gurney Drive Hawker Centre on the seafront.
The national park. Bus 101 to Teluk Bahang, hike through the rainforest to Turtle Beach, and back by boat or on foot.
Tonight: back to George Town for whatever you have not tasted yet.
Food and drink in Penang
Penang has the best food culture in Malaysia, and Malaysians will tell you the same. Chinese, Malay and Indian food sit side by side, and Peranakan cooking, the Chinese and Malay mix, is at its best here.
You eat at hawker centres and roadside stalls, which is also the cheapest way. Beer is the catch in Malaysia: count on about €3 a bottle, more in a bar.
Getting there and onward
Penang is an island, but two bridges and a ferry tie it to the mainland. Bus, train or plane all get you there easily.
Getting there. From Kuala Lumpur the bus takes about five hours. The fast ETS train gets you to Butterworth on the mainland in about four, and from there the ferry crosses to George Town. Penang also has an international airport, about forty minutes from the centre.
On the island. In George Town you walk. The free CAT bus loops the centre, and Rapid Penang buses take you to Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si and the national park for a few cents. Grab works everywhere.
Onward. South are the cool tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands, about four to five hours by minivan. Langkawi is a short flight away, or a ferry from Kuala Kedah or Kuala Perlis. Heading for the east coast? Minivans run to Kuala Besut for the Perhentian Islands, a long day right across the peninsula. Back to Kuala Lumpur is by bus or train.
- BusKuala Lumpur 5 hrs · Cameron Highlands 4 to 5 hrs
- ETS trainKuala Lumpur to Butterworth about 4 hrs
- FerryButterworth to George Town, about 15 minutes
- CAT busFree loops round George Town
- PlaneLangkawi and Kuala Lumpur, both under an hour
Staying safe in Penang
George Town is one of the safest cities in Southeast Asia to walk around, at night too. The traffic and the heat need more attention than your stuff does.
- Use Grab for rides outside the centre, so you know the price up front
- Shoes off and shoulders covered in mosques and temples
- Duck into a café or museum in the middle of the day. The heat is no joke
- Look twice when you cross. Scooters ride on the pavement too
- Walk into the houses on the clan jetties. Families live there
- Mess with drugs. Malaysia has some of the strictest drug laws in the world
- Head into the national park without water
- Feed the monkeys at Penang Hill or in the national park
Rebels on the Road tip
After Kek Lok Si, do not go straight up Penang Hill. Walk into the Air Itam market at the foot of the temple first. One of Penang’s most famous asam laksa stalls is there, and has been in the same spot for decades. You eat it on a stool by the road for about €1.50, then take the bus a few stops on to the funicular. One afternoon: the biggest temple in the country, the island’s most famous dish, and sunset from the top.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in Penang?
Three is right: a day for George Town, one for Kek Lok Si and Penang Hill, and one for the national park. With two you see the city and the hill. People who mainly come to eat often stay longer.
Is Penang expensive?
The food is dirt cheap, about €1.50 to €3 a plate at a hawker stall. Beer and bars cost more than in Thailand. Plan on around €25 a day and you will eat like a king on it.
Where should I stay in Penang?
In the old centre of George Town, around Chulia Street and Love Lane. That is where the hostels, the food and the bars are, with the street art and the clan jetties within walking distance.
What is the difference between Penang and George Town?
Penang is the island and the state, George Town the capital on its north east tip. When backpackers say Penang, they nearly always mean George Town.
What should I eat in Penang?
Asam laksa, char kway teow, nasi kandar and curry mee, with a cendol to finish. Go to Gurney Drive or the Chulia Street stalls in the evening and order from several stalls at once.
Where is the street art in George Town?
Most of the murals are in the old town around Armenian Street, Lebuh Ah Quee and Cannon Street. Ernest Zacharevic’s Children on a Bicycle is on Armenian Street. Go early in the morning and you have them to yourself.
Does Penang have good beaches?
Penang is about the food. For a beach you have Batu Ferringhi on the north coast and quiet bays like Turtle Beach in the national park, and for white sand there are Langkawi and the Perhentian Islands.
Can you get from Penang to Thailand?
Yes, easily. Minivans and buses leave from Komtar and take about three to four hours to Hat Yai in southern Thailand, where you change for Krabi, the islands or Bangkok. For Koh Lipe you go via Hat Yai and the boat from Pak Bara, or in the dry season via Langkawi. What you need when you arrive in Thailand is on our visa page.
When is the best time to visit Penang?
December to March is driest. September to November gets the most rain, but even then the city is very doable.
Sources: hostel ratings from Hostelworld, tours and reviews from GetYourGuide, transport and travel times from 12Go, visa rules from the official immigration sites (see our visa page). The daily budget is our own estimate based on hostel, food and transport prices. How we work.
