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Tourism Penang Tourism Penang Est. 2017 · Penang-born Last verified · This week
An independent Penang guide — est. 2017 Issue No. 38 · Last verified this week

Eighteen Penang districts, walked by people who were born here.

From the clan jetties of George Town to the durian orchards of Balik Pulau and the quiet waters off Pulau Aman — this is the only neighbourhood map of Penang built by a 7-person editorial team that lives on the island. No Top-10 lists. No scraped TripAdvisor blurbs. Every street, stall and shophouse below has been stood in front of within the last twelve months.

Browse all 18 districts Why all 18, not just George Town core →
Publication dateUpdated this week
Editorial team7 Penang-born writers
Venues re-checked600+ in the last 12 months
Index refreshHawker stalls within 48h
A narrow George Town lane at dusk, with shophouse facades and a parked trishaw.
Lebuh Armenian, George Town UNESCO Core — photographed on the most recent editorial walk, March 2025.
A short manifesto

Penang is not just Lebuh Chulia. Neither is this index.

Most guidebooks stop at the George Town UNESCO buffer zone — five streets of street art, a cluster of coffee shops, and a hawker centre you could cover in an afternoon. We think that's a disservice to the island. Balik Pulau's paddy fields, the fishing villages of Kuala Sungai Pinang, the weekend night market in Bayan Baru, the temple caves of Kek Lok Si spilling down the hillside — these are not side trips. They are Penang.

That's why our editorial map covers all 18 districts in print, on the ground, and on foot. Every recommendation below has been walked, tasted, photographed, and re-checked within the last twelve months by one of our seven full-time writers — a Penang-born team with a 1,200-term bilingual hawker glossary, a 48-hour stall-closure refresh protocol, and a stubborn refusal to publish anywhere we haven't stood. We don't aggregate. We don't scrape. We get our shoes dirty.

  • 18 districtsOne complete island map, not a George Town core extract.
  • 7 writersAll Penang-born. All on the ground. All year-round.
  • 1,200+ hawker termsBilingual glossary — Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, Tamil.
  • 48-hour refreshHawker stall index updated within two days of any closure or ownership change.
The full index

Every district we cover, on one map: pick where to spend tomorrow.

Eighteen districts, grouped by region. Each tile is the entry point to a district guide — its streets, its hawker stalls, its shophouse hotels, and the trishaw uncle who knows which kopitiam still fries its own bread.

George Town core

01 George Town UNESCO Core Clan jetties · Lebuh Armenian · street art · 142 venues 02 Chew Jetty & Weld Quay Chew clan jetty · ferries · waterfront coffee · 38 venues 03 Lebuh Chulia & Campbell Street Backpacker strip · old cinemas · late-night mamak · 71 venues 04 Little India & Lebuh Pasar Kapitan's · textiles · banana leaf · 54 venues 05 George Town Inner City Komtar · penang road · 46 venues

Outer George Town

06 Bayan Baru Weekend night market · local cafes · 39 venues 07 Bukit Mertajam Seberang Perai · rice noodles · 27 venues 08 Butterworth Ferry terminal · Penang Sentral · 31 venues 09 Gelugor & Sungai Dua USM campus · wet markets · 22 venues 10 Paya Terubong & Relau Hill country · durian farms · 18 venues

Balik Pulau & southwest

11 Balik Pulau Town Paddy fields · nutmeg · assam laksa · 41 venues 12 Pulau Betong Fishing jetties · coconut groves · 14 venues 13 Teluk Bahang National Park entrance · fishing village · 33 venues 14 Batu Ferringhi Night market · beach hawkers · 29 venues

Islands & coast

15 Pulau Aman Quiet fishing island · beachside mee udang · 9 venues 16 Pulau Jerejak Reformed penal colony · mangroves · 6 venues 17 Pulau Ketam Stilted Chinese fishing village · seafood · 12 venues 18 Tanjung Bungah Northern coast · beaches · temples · 24 venues

All 600+ verified venues across these 18 districts are walked at least once a year. If a stall closes or ownership changes, our hawker index reflects it within 48 hours.

Open the hawker index
By the numbers

Proof that these 18 districts are walked and re-verified, not scraped.

18 Districts on the map From George Town core to Pulau Aman — every corner of the island.
600+ Venues re-checked annually Every shophouse, stall and hotel walked by a member of our editorial team each year.
7 Full-time Penang-born writers Including a retired hawker-turned-contributor. No remote freelancers on the ground.
48h Hawker closure refresh window If a stall closes or changes hands, the index is updated within two days — verified on foot.
A taste of three districts

A taste of three districts, told in 80 words each, before you browse the rest.

George Town UNESCO Core shophouse facade at dawn with joss sticks smouldering outside a Chinese clan house.
George Town UNESCO Core — Lebuh Armenian, dawn editorial walk.
District 01

George Town UNESCO Core

Start at the Chew Jetty before sunrise — the stilted wooden planks are still wet, and the trishaw uncles are brewing their first pot of Hokkien tea. Wander inward through Lebuh Armenian and Lebuh Chulia, where the street art hides behind louvered shutters and the morning Cantonese opera drifts out of second-storey windows. Have the assam laksa at Penang Road Famous, then walk it off past the Khoo Kongsi clan house.

Read the full George Town core guide →
An elderly farmer walks between flooded paddy fields in Balik Pulau at golden hour.
Balik Pulau — paddy fields at the end of the harvest cycle.
District 11

Balik Pulau

Drive west across the island until the shophouses give way to paddy. Balik Pulau is durian country between June and August — book a farm visit to Meng Lim's orchard on Jalan Sungai Pinang and eat the Musang King under the tree it fell from. Lunch is assam laksa at Nan Guang Coffee Shop, then a slow loop past the nutmeg processing sheds and the hillside temples of Kek Lok Si before the light goes.

Read the full Balik Pulau guide →
A wooden jetty on Pulau Aman with a single blue fishing boat and clear turquoise water.
Pulau Aman — the southeastern jetty, on a weekday noon.
District 15

Pulau Aman

Take the half-hour ferry from Batu Musang jetty and arrive on an island with one road, one village, and nine places our editors actually eat at. The beachside mee udang at Jalan Telok Aur is the reason Penangites make the crossing on a Saturday. Linger for the slow boat back, when the channel turns copper and the only sound is the outboard and the kelong bells off the southeast corner.

Read the full Pulau Aman guide →

If I haven't walked the lane in the last year, I don't publish a guide for it. Penang changes too quickly — a hawker stall opens on a Tuesday and closes by Friday, a shophouse hotel flips to a coworking space by Monday. The only honest way to write this place is to keep showing up, shoe-leather on the ground, every season.

Lim Kah Wei Founder & Editor-in-Chief · Tourism Penang · George Town-born, 1978
Meet the editorial team