VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • 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. Boston 35, New Orleans 14: Boston leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, New Orleans 67: Boston leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, New Orleans 42: Boston leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, New Orleans 52: Boston leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, New Orleans 55: Boston leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, New Orleans 55: Boston leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, New Orleans 54: Boston leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, New Orleans 25: Boston leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Boston
56match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

New Orleans
54match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonNew Orleans
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m-2 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonNew Orleans
City population675,647383,997
People per km²2,910423
Museums within 10 km5116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone7 months

Where else could you go?

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