VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

New Orleans or Phuket?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Phuket 66: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Phuket 35: New Orleans leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Phuket 72: New Orleans leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 38 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Phuket 45: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Phuket 22: New Orleans leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Phuket 42: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Phuket 20: New Orleans leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 57 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Phuket.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches 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
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansPhuket

Where the figures come from

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation-2 m19 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansPhuket
City population383,99777,610
People per km²4236,468
Museums within 10 km162
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or Phuket 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.