VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

New Orleans or San Jose?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, San Jose 56: New Orleans leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, San Jose 36: New Orleans leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, San Jose 33: New Orleans leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, San Jose 30: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, San Jose 48: New Orleans leads by 6 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, San Jose 20: New Orleans leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, San Jose 38: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and San Jose.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

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

San Jose
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSan Jose
City population383,9971,013,240
People per km²4232,167
Museums within 10 km1619
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Jose 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.