VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Athens 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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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. Athens 70, New Orleans 14: Athens leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, New Orleans 67: Athens leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, New Orleans 42: Athens leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, New Orleans 52: Athens leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, New Orleans 55: Athens leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, New Orleans 55: Athens leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, New Orleans 54: Athens leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, New Orleans 40: Athens leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, New Orleans 25: Athens leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

New Orleans
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AthensNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensNew Orleans
Official languageGreek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation74 m-2 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensNew Orleans
City population643,452383,997
People per km²16,499423
Museums within 10 km8816
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.