VacationSelector
The skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake, Denver
DenverThe skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

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

Denver 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 Denver for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Denver 5, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Denver 54, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Denver 44, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Denver 47, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Denver 84, New Orleans 42: Denver leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Denver 57, New Orleans 52: Denver leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Denver 67, New Orleans 55: Denver leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Denver 40, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Denver 44, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Denver 36, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Denver 66, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Denver 40, New Orleans 25: Denver leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Denver and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Denver
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Denver in July

32 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
DenverNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Denver: 1991-2020 normals, Denver / Stapleton International, Co. (11.2 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDenverNew Orleans
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,609 m-2 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)30 km from centre231 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

MeasureDenverNew Orleans
City population715,522383,997
People per km²1,783423
Museums within 10 km2616
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 Denver 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.