VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Los Angeles 60, New Orleans 14: Los Angeles leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles and New Orleans are level on 84.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, New Orleans 42: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, New Orleans 52: Los Angeles leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, New Orleans 55: Los Angeles leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, New Orleans 54: Los Angeles leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, New Orleans 80: Los Angeles leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, New Orleans 25: Los Angeles leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on getting around 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.

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °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
Los AngelesNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesNew 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
Elevation106 m-2 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 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

MeasureLos AngelesNew Orleans
City population3,898,747383,997
People per km²2,994423
Museums within 10 km3916
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Los Angeles 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.