VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Huntington Beach 70, New Orleans 14: Huntington Beach leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach 58, New Orleans 42: Huntington Beach leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, New Orleans 52: Huntington Beach leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, New Orleans 55: Huntington Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, New Orleans 25: Huntington Beach leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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
Huntington BeachNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachNew Orleans
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m-2 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachNew Orleans
City population198,711383,997
People per km²2,406423
Museums within 10 km316
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 Huntington Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.