VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Bilbao 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 Bilbao for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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. Bilbao 45, New Orleans 14: Bilbao leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, New Orleans 42: Bilbao leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, New Orleans 52: Bilbao leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Bilbao and New Orleans are level on 55.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, New Orleans 55: Bilbao leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, New Orleans 40: Bilbao leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, New Orleans 25: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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.

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °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
BilbaoNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoNew 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
Elevation19 m-2 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoNew Orleans
City population351,124383,997
People per km²8,440423
Museums within 10 km1716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month7 months

Where else could you go?

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