VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

New Orleans or Paris?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Paris for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Paris 96: Paris leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Paris 97: Paris leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Paris 80: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Paris 52: Paris leads by 10 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Paris 92: Paris leads by 40 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Paris 79: Paris leads by 24 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Paris 88: Paris leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Paris 98: Paris leads by 44 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Paris 25: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Paris 88: Paris leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Paris 40: Paris leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Paris.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on shopping and day trips 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

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansParis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansParis
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation-2 m27 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansParis
City population383,9972,103,778
People per km²42319,960
Museums within 10 km16251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Paris 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.