VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Oaxaca?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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, Oaxaca 5: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans and Oaxaca are level on 84.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Oaxaca 40: New Orleans leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 13 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Oaxaca 40: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Getting around. New Orleans and Oaxaca are level on 55.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Oaxaca 38: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Oaxaca.

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

New Orleans
54match

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

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices and wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansOaxaca

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansOaxaca
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m1,555 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansOaxaca
City population383,997258,913
People per km²4233,028
Museums within 10 km1610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

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