VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

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

Chengdu 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 Chengdu for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • 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. Chengdu 5, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, New Orleans 84: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, New Orleans 42: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, New Orleans 52: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, New Orleans 55: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, New Orleans 55: Chengdu leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, New Orleans 54: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, New Orleans 40: Chengdu leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, New Orleans 25: Chengdu leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and wellness 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.

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduNew 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
Elevation500 m-2 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 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

MeasureChengduNew Orleans
City population20,937,757383,997
People per km²1,456423
Museums within 10 km1016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Chengdu 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.