Penang attractions

Touted as one of the country’s best state museums, the Penang State Museum and Art Gallery covers Penang’s history, including the settlement of the islands and the Penang Riots. The museum’s collection also showcases the cultural heritage that developed along the way, from the Peranakan people to British colonial influence to today.

The Wonderfood Museum in Penang is a fun and informative museum all about food. As Malaysia’s culinary capital, Penang draws travelers for its delicious food. At this quirky museum, visitors can learn about the cuisine of Penang and wider Malaysia through dozens of realistic models of food, in addition to taking some amusing photos.

Built by the British as a fortress in the 1930s, and later used by the Japanese as a prisoner of war camp, the Penang War Museum now serves as a memorial to its darker days. Sprawled across some 20 acres (8 hectares) of land, it boasts the title of Southeast Asia’s largest war museum.

In 1910, the Chinese revolutionary and future president Sun Yat-sen spent six months in Penang. The Sun Yat-Sen Museum Penang occupies the restored historic shophouse where he and his family lived and his political party met. Besides perusing displays about Sun’s activities in George Town, you can learn about historic George Town architecture here.

Escape Penang is an immersive activity park in jungle-clad grounds that's best known for its signature 3,645-foot (1,111-meter) waterslide, which won a Guinness World Record in 2019. You'll find three main elements. There’s Adventureplay, a ropes course; Waterplay, a water park with high-adrenaline slides and rides; and Gravityplay, a hilltop attraction.

Penang’s TeddyVille Museum is dedicated to all things teddy bear. Check out teddies from around the world, from tiny to human-sized, including antiques from the early 1900s. You’ll also see the Mini Penang exhibit, where miniature bears are dressed up and posed in reenactments of key moments in Penang’s history.

Part archive and part exhibition space, the Penang House of Music focuses on the diverse musical heritage of this historically and culturally rich city. Visitors to the museum, opened in 2017, can play radio announcer, view vintage films, and learn about puppet theater, Chinese opera, local dances, musical instruments, and Malaysian pop bands.

Even though it's one of the world’s smallest forest reserves, Penang National Park packs plenty of action into a compact space—including hardwood trees, mangrove forests, and carnivorous pitcher plants. Kerachut Beach (Turtle Beach) is home to a turtle conservation center and a seasonal meromictic lake, while Monkey Beach (Pantai Monkey) has a population of macaques.

A cluster of amusement activities set in Komtar—Penang’s highest building—the TOP Penang encompasses everything from an aquarium to an exhibit devoted to the notoriously stinky durian fruit. Most travelers come for the Rainbow Skywalk, a glass skywalk perched 68 floors above George Town; tickets include the air-conditioned observation deck on the 65th floor.

Stores, homes, temples, and fishing boats crowd Chew Jetty on George Town’s waterfront, the largest clan jetty that once made up an old Chinese settlement on Penang. Walk around the elevated wooden boardwalks that connect stilt houses, pick up souvenirs, and sample local snacks as you go.

Toward sunset, Kimberley Street in George Town’s Chinatown comes alive with street stalls. Vendors flip oyster omelets and stir-fry sizzling woks of char kway teow; dessert specialists serve up Chinese sweet soups; and visiting foodies enjoy specialties such as Penang laksa and Hokkien prawn noodles.

A visual feast of red and gold with a towering Buddha, the 19th-century Dhammikarama Burmese Temple is one of few Burmese Buddhist temples outside Myanmar. Besides a gilded stupa, a spire-clad pavilion, a candy-colored bell tower, and a fish pond, a wealth of multi-colored temple guardians protect the incense-wreathed prayer hall.

Perched on a hilltop just outside George Town, the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple is one of the largest Lord Murugan temples outside India: Its main gate stands as high as a 7-storey building. During the Thaipusam festival, the grounds can accommodate as many as 800,000 celebrants.

Nature lovers will enjoy exploring Penang National Park, home to the secluded Teluk Duyung, better-known as Monkey Beach for the long-tailed gray macaques that call the cove home. The area is also home to sea otters, fruit bats, and eagles, and the clear, green waters are perfect for cooling off.

Penang’s oldest Chinese temple and a hub for the Chinese community, the Goddess of Mercy Temple (Kuan Yin Teng) sits amid Muslim, Christian, and Hindu places of worship on George Town’s Street of Harmony. Devotees burn paper money in metal vessels and neon pink incense sticks smolder, while protective dragons guard the inner sanctum.

The Kapitan Keling Mosque’s Mughal-style onion domes and soaring minaret stand out on the George Town skyline, making it a highlight of the “Street of Harmony” that bears its name. Penang’s Indian Muslim community built the mosque in 1801, and today its airy prayer hall has space for 1,500 worshippers.

Opened in 2014, the Asia Camera Museum Penang displays antique and modern cameras from across the globe, including vintage cameras from Japan, Sweden, and the United States. The permanent exhibition features more than 1,000 cameras and photographic accessories, some of which you can pick up and play around with.

Home to a wealth of trompe l’oeil art, many with a distinctive Penang flavor, the Penang 3D Trick Art Museum offers the chance to photograph quirky poses at 30-plus illusions. You can simulate skydiving, pose with painted pandas or in the jaws of a giant python, or travel back in Penang time by bullock cart, trolley bus, or rowing boat.