VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Laguna 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 Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna Beach’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. Laguna Beach 72, New Orleans 14: Laguna Beach leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 67 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, New Orleans 42: Laguna Beach leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, New Orleans 52: Laguna Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, New Orleans 55: Laguna Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, New Orleans 25: Laguna Beach leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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.

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °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
Laguna BeachNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna 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
Elevation6 m-2 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 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

MeasureLaguna BeachNew Orleans
City population23,032383,997
People per km²907423
Museums within 10 km216
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 Laguna 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.