A practical guide to George Town, the clan jetties and Penang Hill, with current prices, transport and the one development worth watching.
National Geographic has named Penang one of the 25 best places to travel to in 2027. According to Malay Mail, the state’s tourism committee says it is the only Southeast Asian entry on the list. We flagged the listing in Issue 31 of Unmasked Weekly. This is the longer version. A listing like this brings visitors, and a sudden rush of them could harm three places in Penang. George Town is a heritage zone where families still live in the buildings. The clan jetties are a stilt village on the water. Penang Hill is a rainforest under UNESCO protection.
The magazine describes the state as having “dual personalities”. Penang Island holds George Town and the beaches. Across a narrow strip of sea, the mainland district of Seberang Perai has traditional villages, mangrove-lined rivers and industry. A first trip can stay on the island, and this guide does. It also sets out how to enjoy it without adding to the pressure.
George Town: A Heritage Site People Still Live In
George Town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. The island was a trading post between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Chinese, Indian, Burmese, Arab and European settlers left their mark on the food, the architecture and the religious life. You see it in the shophouses, the temples and the clan houses, and you taste it at every meal. National Geographic singles out the murals on Armenian Street and Love Lane and the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. All three sit within walking distance of each other, so the old town works best on foot, with the free Central Area Transit shuttle, Rapid Penang buses and Grab filling the gaps. Trishaws are there for anyone who wants the slow version.
The clan jetties deserve more thought than a photo stop. There are eight, and each is still home to a different clan. Chinese traders settled the Weld Quay waterfront after the British made Penang a free port, then built villages over the water that doubled as trading posts. The Chew family arrived around 1880 from Tainan, and the fifth generation now lives there. Cathay Pacific’s travel site spoke to residents, and the picture is not a simple one. The land belongs to the government, so families renew their occupant’s licence every year. Saltwater eats the timber, so repairs are constant. Some families now run homestays, and the income pays for that upkeep. Chew Jetty is the busiest, with small shops and eateries aimed at visitors, and residents say the jetties are busier and less peaceful than they used to be.
My advice is to treat the jetties as a neighbourhood, not an attraction. Keep your voice down, keep your camera out of doorways, and spend money with the people who live there: a drink at a jetty shop, or a night in a homestay if you want longer than an afternoon. A community that does not own its land has little leverage over how many visitors turn up. The visitor can ease that.
Then there is the food, which is why many people go. National Geographic’s shortlist is char kway teow, asam laksa and nasi kandar. The first is a smoky stir-fried noodle dish with shrimp and Chinese sausage. The second is a sour, spicy mackerel noodle soup with pineapple and herbs. The third is steamed rice served with a choice of curries, meats and vegetables. Many George Town restaurants blend Cantonese and Peranakan cooking, and it is worth trying both styles side by side.
Penang Hill: Go Up on the Funicular While It Is the Main Way Up
The funicular climbs about 2,700 feet (roughly 820 metres) through forest to the top of Penang Hill. It is a century-old railway and it is still the main way up. Trains run from 6.30am to 11pm, about every half hour, with the last journey up at 10pm. Ticket counters are open from 6.15am to 9.45pm. Visitors pay the standard rate, which on the Penang Hill website is RM40 (about £7.40 or US$9.80) for an adult return and RM20 (about £3.70 or US$4.90) for a child aged 4 to 12. An Express Lane costs double, so RM80 (about £14.80 or US$19.60) for an adult return. Single tickets are RM25 (about £4.60 or US$6.10) for an adult and can only be bought at the counter.
The funicular has been doing this for a century, quietly and without cable cars overhead
At the top, the draw is the forest itself. National Geographic points to a rainforest canopy walk at The Habitat and to guided eco-heritage tours. That matters because Penang Hill is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The designation came on 15 September 2021, the third in Malaysia. The reserve covers about a quarter of Penang Island and holds more than 2,000 plant species and over 500 animal species, according to the reserve’s own website. Issue 15 of Unmasked Weekly covered the canopy bridges built for Penang’s langurs.
The development to watch is the cable car. It will run 2.73 kilometres from the Penang Botanic Gardens to the summit in around ten minutes, with 46 cabins on 15 towers and a capacity of up to 1,400 passengers an hour in each direction, according to reports. The project was reported 32 per cent complete in August, with a price of RM367.2 million (about £68 million or US$90 million), physical completion due by August 2027 and operations expected in the final quarter of 2027. Supporters say it will relieve pressure on the funicular and give the hill a second route when the railway closes for maintenance. The developer says building inside a biosphere reserve calls for careful planning to keep the environmental impact low.
Critics were saying something different in 2021, when the listing came through. Friends of the Earth Malaysia’s president, Meenakshi Raman, opposed a cable car on the grounds that “the more people you allow, the more disturbance and incursions there are”. Five years on, the project is about a third built, and the reports I read do not mention a visitor cap for the summit. I would want to see one. A badge tells you a forest matters. A limit on numbers shows someone is acting on it. That is the argument we made about Malaysia’s new ASEAN Heritage Parks in The Badge Is the Easy Part. If you want the hill before the cable car, 2027’s quieter months are the window.
Beyond the Hill: Kek Lok Si, Getting There and When to Go
Kek Lok Si Temple is the other stop worth building a half day around. It is a hillside complex with gardens, a bronze statue of the Goddess of Mercy and a seven-tier pagoda, and the Liberation Tortoise Pond holds rescued turtles.
Kek Lok Si: one hillside, one pagoda and a pond of rescued turtles.
Penang International Airport takes international flights from many countries. The state’s study-Penang site says you can fly direct or transit through Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Qatar or Bangkok. There are no direct flights from the United States, and National Geographic suggests a layover in Hong Kong, Singapore or Taipei. Two road bridges, the Penang Bridge and the Second Penang Bridge, link the island to the mainland, and the ferry from Butterworth takes 20 minutes. The ferry terminal sits next to Penang Sentral, where the KTM intercity and ETS trains arrive, so you can step off a train from elsewhere in Malaysia and onto a boat without a taxi in between. Arriving by rail and ferry also tends to produce less carbon than a short domestic flight.
On the island, Grab covers most routes. Rapid Penang buses are cheap, the free CAT shuttle runs through George Town, and trishaws take over for the last stretch of the old streets. Car and scooter hire give you flexibility beyond the old town, which is better left to feet. National Geographic also says Penang River Cruise is adding more eco-guided trips through mangrove habitat. The mainland mangroves are a good reason to give the trip an extra day.
December to February is the busy, expensive stretch. March to May and September to November are quieter, although October is typically the wettest month. Chinese New Year in February and Diwali in October or November also bring crowds and higher prices. If you are choosing, I would pick March to May. The streets are quieter, and you reach the hill before the cable car opens. Three days covers George Town, the temple and the hill: the old town on foot on the first day, the temple and the hill on the second, and a third kept loose for the mainland or a long lunch.
National Geographic’s list will bring more visitors to Penang, and the food and the streets are worth the trip. What matters is where the attention lands. The families on the clan jetties, the old streets of George Town and the forest on Penang Hill did not ask for the spotlight, and each of them is affected by small choices: where you eat, where you stay, how you get up the hill. Choose the options that leave the place as you found it.
Further Reading
- Is Malaysia Southeast Asia’s Best-Kept Secret?
- Borneo: The Greatest Island Wildlife Sanctuary Where Your Money Funds Conservation Efforts
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