VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, New Orleans 42: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg and New Orleans are level on 52.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, New Orleans 54: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, New Orleans 40: Johannesburg leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, New Orleans 25: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgNew Orleans
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m-2 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 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

MeasureJohannesburgNew Orleans
City population4,803,262383,997
People per km²2,922423
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Johannesburg 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.