VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or New York?

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 New Orleans for

  • prices

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

Choose New York for

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. New Orleans 14, New York 50: New York leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, New York 92: New York leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, New York 89: New York leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, New York 97: New York leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, New York 55: New York leads by 13 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, New York 68: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, New York 70: New York leads by 15 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, New York 82: New York leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, New York 97: New York leads by 43 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, New York 12: New Orleans leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, New York 99: New York leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, New York 42: New York leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and New York.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansNew York
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m25 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansNew York
City population383,9978,804,190
People per km²4237,256
Museums within 10 km16157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or New York 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.