New Orleans or San Diego?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Diego leads by 24 points.24
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 63 |
| Swim season months | 7 | 1 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 42 |
| Coast distance | 21 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 17 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. San Diego leads by 2 points.2
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 63 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 803 | 823 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 25 | 27 |
Museums & heritage. New Orleans leads by 1 points.1
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 44 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 59 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 30 | 30 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 71 | 51 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. New Orleans leads by 4 points.4
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 50 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 704 | 615 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 495 | 408 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 66 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 41 | 31 |
Nature & day trips. San Diego leads by 30 points.30
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 89 | 52 |
| Park area within 2 km | 43 hectares | 308 hectares |
Good for families. San Diego leads by 29 points.29
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 22 | 40 |
| Park area within 2 km | 43 hectares | 308 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. New Orleans and San Diego are level on 40.
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 40 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 40 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. New Orleans and San Diego are level on 43.
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Diego leads by 20 points.20
| New Orleans | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 88 |
| Monthly daytime high | 17.1 °C to 33 °C | 18.6 °C to 25 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 94 mm to 194 mm | 0 mm to 56 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 9 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year 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).
Getting there
| Flying from | New Orleans | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 55 m €254-325 1 stop MSY · 18 km | 5 h 15 m €299-455 1 stop SAN · 3 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 15 m €208-268 1 stop MSY · 18 km | 3 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 4 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 1 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| DenverDEN, APA | 2 h 40 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 15 m €64-224 SAN · 3 km |
| Las VegasLAS | 3 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 1 h 10 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 3 h 15 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 5 h 35 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| PhoenixPHX, AZA | 3 h 5 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 1 h 15 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| CancunCUN | 1 h 55 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 4 h 30 m no fares TIJ · 26 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 9 h 25 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 11 h 0 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | New Orleans | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | -2 m | 129 m |
| Main airport | Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre50 non-stop destinations | San Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | New Orleans | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,997 | 1,386,932 |
| People per km² | 423 | 1,438 |
| Museums within 10 km | 16 | 26 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 39 | 44 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 7 months | 1 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.