VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Cancun 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 Cancun for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Cancun 98, New Orleans 14: Cancun leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, New Orleans 42: Cancun leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, New Orleans 52: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, New Orleans 55: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, New Orleans 40: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 63 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, New Orleans 25: Cancun leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun 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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

New Orleans
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunNew Orleans

Where the figures come from

Cancun has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunNew Orleans
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m-2 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunNew Orleans
City population888,797383,997
People per km²-423
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or New Orleans somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.