Penang - Do & See

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Penang

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Overview

Do & See The guide was updated: 2024-05-29

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

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.

Penang Hill

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.

Snake Temple

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.

Penang Botanical Gardens

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.

Entopia Butterfly Farm

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.

Kek Lok Si Temple

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.

Monkey Beach & Penang National Park

Monkey Beach & Penang National Park

Monkey Beach, also known as Teluk Duyung, is popular for its calm water, fine sand, picnic tables, and a troop of half-tame macaques. It is an attractive destination for a 2-3 hour walk through the tropical woodland of Penang National Park, Taman Negara Pulau Pinang. Be sure to check in at the park office before setting off.

Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis is George Town’s most prominent historical landmark. Its star-shaped 18th-century ramparts on the waterfront enclose an array of British colonial buildings, including prison cells, a powder magazine, a chapel, a harbour beacon, and bronze cannons still mounted on the battlements.

Kuan Yin Temple

Kuan Yin Temple

Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy Temple, was built during the 19th century by Chinese settlers of Hokkien descent. It is the oldest Chinese temple in Georgetown, named in honour of a devout Buddhist sage.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze, the Blue Mansion, was one of the wealthiest merchants of the 19th century, and Penang Straits Settlement imported artisans from China to build this opulent 38-room mansion. With its five courtyards, carved woodwork, Gothic louvered windows and cast iron, the mansion is a fascinating fusion of East and West culture. The building was restored at a cost of 7.6 million ringgit, and it is crammed with sculptures, antique furniture and tapestries, while now being a unique boutique hotel. However, it is also open for non-residents during guided tours, so book one ahead.

Khoo Kongsi Association

Khoo Kongsi Association

Khoo Kongsi was built just over a century ago, and it is the finest example of a Hokkien Chinese ‘clan house’ complex in Georgetown. Its grand hall is replete with decorative carvings and ornamented columns, and the red tiled roof is crowned with extravagant carvings of demons, dragons and other creatures from Chinese mythology. The hall is surrounded by a complex of shops, houses and other buildings, within a rectangle of defensive walls.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple

Sri Mahamariamman Temple

The dazzlingly colourful Sri Mahamariamman Temple is the cultural and religious hub of George Town’s ‘Little India’ quarter, home to immigrants from the subcontinent for more than a century. Encrusted with garishly painted statues of deities, demons, and mythical creatures, the Sri Mahamariamman is the oldest of the city’s Hindu temples and is still in daily use. Inside stands a valuable statue of the Hindu deity Lord Subramanya, lavishly embellished with gold and precious stones.

Kapitan Keling Mosque

Kapitan Keling Mosque

Muslim Indian sepoys (soldiers) of the British East India Company’s Penang garrison built Masjid Kapitan Keling in 1801. It has been extensively restored and expanded in the two centuries since. Above the yellow domes and turrets of the mosque compound towers a tall minaret.

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