Explore Penang

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, known for its indigo-blue walls as the Blue Mansion, was built on Leith Street in George Town at the end of the 19th century as the home and business seat of the merchant Cheong Fatt Tze. Chinese in plan with European details, it has 38 rooms around five courtyards. Now a heritage hotel, it shows its public rooms on guided and audio tours.

Pinang Peranakan Mansion is a museum of Penang's Peranakan (Straits Chinese) heritage in a green-painted mansion on Church Street in George Town. Built in the 1890s as the home and office of the tycoon Chung Keng Quee, Kapitan Cina of Perak, it displays thousands of Peranakan objects, from carved furniture and porcelain to jewellery, in rooms set out as a wealthy household.

The Penang Botanic Gardens lie on Jalan Air Terjun at the foot of Penang Hill, on George Town's western edge. Laid out by the British in 1884 on a former granite quarry under its first curator Charles Curtis, the 29-hectare gardens are also called the Waterfall Gardens after a nearby cascade and form part of the Penang Hill Biosphere Reserve.

Penang Hill is a group of forested peaks in the centre of Penang Island, about 9 km west of central George Town, rising to 833 metres at Western Hill. A retreat from the heat in colonial times, its developed summit, Flagstaff Hill, is reached by the Penang Hill Railway funicular and has viewpoints over George Town, colonial bungalows, temples and forest trails.

Tropical Spice Garden is a landscaped hillside garden on the north coast of Penang Island, near Teluk Bahang. Its five acres hold more than 500 kinds of spice plants and other tropical flora along shaded trails and terraces, and it runs guided walks, a café and a cooking school.

ESCAPE is an outdoor adventure park in Teluk Bahang on the north coast of Penang Island, opened in 2012 on a former construction site at the edge of the forest. Its rides and games are mostly powered by the visitors themselves: rope courses, climbing towers, swings and slides, with a separate water play area.

Entopia is an insect and nature centre in Teluk Bahang on the north coast of Penang Island, founded in 1986 as the Penang Butterfly Farm and reopened in new buildings in 2016. Under its glass domes, butterflies fly freely through a planted outdoor garden, while an indoor discovery centre shows insects, reptiles and other small animals.