VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

New Orleans or Puerto Plata?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Puerto Plata 40: New Orleans leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Puerto Plata 35: New Orleans leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Puerto Plata 38: New Orleans leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 26 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Puerto Plata 48: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 2 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Puerto Plata 30: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Puerto Plata 30: New Orleans leads by 24 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Puerto Plata 18: New Orleans leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

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

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansPuerto Plata
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m34 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansPuerto Plata
City population383,997-
People per km²423-
Museums within 10 km161
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 Puerto Plata 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.