VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • 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. Lucerne 35, New Orleans 14: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, New Orleans 42: Lucerne leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, New Orleans 52: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, New Orleans 55: Lucerne leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, New Orleans 55: Lucerne leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, New Orleans 25: Lucerne leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

New Orleans
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.

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LucerneNew Orleans

Where the figures come from

Lucerne has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneNew Orleans
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, Romansh-
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation436 m-2 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneNew Orleans
City population86,234383,997
People per km²2,963423
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Lucerne 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.