VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Salvador?

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

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Salvador 66: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Salvador 70: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Salvador 52: Salvador leads by 10 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Salvador 42: New Orleans leads by 13 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Salvador 42: New Orleans leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Salvador 42: New Orleans leads by 12 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Salvador 63: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Salvador.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSalvador

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSalvador
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation-2 m8 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSalvador
City population383,9972,417,678
People per km²4233,489
Museums within 10 km1649
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Salvador 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.