VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Abu Dhabi or New Orleans?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Abu Dhabi for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Abu Dhabi’s own page.

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New Orleans’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Abu Dhabi 78, New Orleans 14: Abu Dhabi leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, New Orleans 42: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, New Orleans 52: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, New Orleans 55: Abu Dhabi leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi 38, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi 32, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, New Orleans 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and New Orleans.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Abu Dhabi
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiNew Orleans

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiNew Orleans
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation14 m-2 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiNew Orleans
City population1,570,000383,997
People per km²1,615423
Museums within 10 km316
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or New Orleans somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.