Experience the best of George Town

George Town was founded by the British East India Company in 1786 on the north-east tip of Penang island, and its old centre, a World Heritage Site shared with Melaka, mixes Chinese shophouses, Malay and Indian streets, mosques, temples and colonial buildings. Fort Cornwallis marks where the British landed, the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is painted indigo blue, and Khoo Kongsi is a clan house with an elaborately carved hall. Murals and iron-wire sculptures decorate walls throughout the lanes.

The clan jetties on the waterfront, such as Chew Jetty, are villages of wooden houses on stilts, while Little India and Armenian Street give the town its mixed character. Outside the old centre, Kek Lok Si is a hillside Buddhist temple complex, and a funicular railway climbs Penang Hill to cooler air and views. Batu Ferringhi and the beaches of the north-west, and the forests of Penang National Park, are a short drive from the centre.

Penang is widely regarded as Malaysia's food capital, and hawker stalls serve char kway teow, flat rice noodles fried over fierce heat, assam laksa, a sour fish-based noodle soup, nasi kandar, rice with curries, and iced cendol. Hokkien mee, a prawn noodle soup, is a local favourite. Heat and humidity last all year, though the driest weather falls in the early months.