VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans or San Diego?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, San Diego 62: New Orleans leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, San Diego 50: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, San Diego 48: New Orleans leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 35 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 41 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, San Diego 38: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, San Diego 44: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, San Diego 26: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, San Diego 56: New Orleans leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and San Diego.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

New Orleans
54match

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

San Diego
56match

Wins on beaches and families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSan Diego
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m129 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSan Diego
City population383,9971,386,932
People per km²4231,438
Museums within 10 km1626
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or San Diego 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.