VacationSelector
The Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico CityThe Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Mexico City by Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Mexico City 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 Mexico City for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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. Mexico City 5, New Orleans 14: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Mexico City 90, New Orleans 84: Mexico City leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Mexico City 88, New Orleans 67: Mexico City leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Mexico City 80, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mexico City 50, New Orleans 42: Mexico City leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Mexico City 75, New Orleans 52: Mexico City leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Mexico City 58, New Orleans 55: Mexico City leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Mexico City 50, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Mexico City 76, New Orleans 54: Mexico City leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Mexico City 75, New Orleans 40: Mexico City leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mexico City 72, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mexico City 40, New Orleans 25: Mexico City leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Mexico City
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

New Orleans
54match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Mexico City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
176 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
Mexico CityNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMexico CityNew Orleans
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,240 m-2 m
Main airportMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMexico CityNew Orleans
City population9,209,944383,997
People per km²6,202423
Museums within 10 km10816
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Mexico City 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.