VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Riga?

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
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Riga for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Riga 52: New Orleans leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Riga 66: New Orleans leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Riga 52: New Orleans leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Riga 55: Riga leads by 13 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Riga 60: Riga leads by 8 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Riga 50: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Riga 68: Riga leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Riga 45: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Riga 62: Riga leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Riga 65: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Riga 50: Riga 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 Riga.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

New Orleans
54match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Riga
55match

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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansRiga
Official language-Latvian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation-2 m6 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansRiga
City population383,997588,911
People per km²423-
Museums within 10 km1612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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