VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • day trips

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. Las Vegas 10, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, New Orleans 85: Las Vegas leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, New Orleans 42: Las Vegas leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, New Orleans 52: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, New Orleans 54: Las Vegas leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, New Orleans 25: Las Vegas leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Las Vegas
47match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasNew 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
Elevation610 m-2 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 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

MeasureLas VegasNew Orleans
City population641,903383,997
People per km²1,843423
Museums within 10 km2116
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 Las Vegas 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.