VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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. Beijing 6, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, New Orleans 67: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, New Orleans 42: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, New Orleans 52: Beijing leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, New Orleans 55: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, New Orleans 55: Beijing leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, New Orleans 54: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, New Orleans 40: Beijing leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, New Orleans 25: Beijing leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

New Orleans
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.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BeijingNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingNew Orleans
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m-2 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingNew Orleans
City population21,893,095383,997
People per km²1,334423
Museums within 10 km8316
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.