VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Gold Coast 92, New Orleans 14: Gold Coast leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, New Orleans 42: Gold Coast leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast and New Orleans are level on 52.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, New Orleans 55: Gold Coast leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, New Orleans 25: Gold Coast leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gold Coast 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

Gold Coast
52match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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
Gold CoastNew Orleans

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastNew Orleans
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation12 m-2 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastNew Orleans
City population607,665383,997
People per km²433423
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Gold Coast 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.