Melbourne or New Orleans?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Melbourne leads by 16 points.16
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 39 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 7 |
| Beaches 10 km | 19 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 4 km | 21 km |
| Water distance | 4 km | 17 km |
Places to eat. Melbourne leads by 14 points.14
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 61 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,888 | 803 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 25 |
Museums & heritage. Melbourne leads by 4 points.4
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 42 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 24 | 30 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 71 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Melbourne leads by 20 points.20
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,921 | 704 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,200 | 495 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 124 | 41 |
Nature & day trips. Melbourne leads by 18 points.18
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 25 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 81 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 166 hectares | 43 hectares |
Good for families. Melbourne leads by 14 points.14
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 46 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 26 | 22 |
| Park area within 2 km | 166 hectares | 43 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Melbourne leads by 17 points.17
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 40 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 103 | 40 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Melbourne leads by 7 points.7
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 43 |
| Price level global | 90.2 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Melbourne leads by 8 points.8
| Melbourne | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 68 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.6 °C to 26.8 °C | 17.1 °C to 33 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 45 mm to 69 mm | 94 mm to 194 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Melbourne | New Orleans |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 15 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 3 h 50 m no fares MSY · 18 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 17 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 1 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 15 h 35 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 4 h 15 m no fares MSY · 18 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Melbourne | New Orleans |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | – |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer |
| Emergency number | 000 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | -2 m |
| Main airport | Melbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre66 non-stop destinations | Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre50 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Melbourne | New Orleans |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 5,350,705 | 383,997 |
| People per km² | 535 | 423 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 16 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 86 | 39 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 7 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Melbourne or New Orleans somewhere new.