VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose New Orleans for

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

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. Barcelona 75, New Orleans 14: Barcelona leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, New Orleans 67: Barcelona leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, New Orleans 42: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, New Orleans 52: Barcelona leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, New Orleans 55: Barcelona leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, New Orleans 55: Barcelona leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, New Orleans 54: Barcelona leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, New Orleans 40: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, New Orleans 25: Barcelona leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

New Orleans
54match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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
BarcelonaNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaNew Orleans
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m-2 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaNew Orleans
City population1,731,649383,997
People per km²17,094423
Museums within 10 km9516
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.