VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

New Orleans or San Juan?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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 Juan 84: San Juan leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, San Juan 66: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, San Juan 64: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, San Juan 70: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 32 points.
Day trips. New Orleans and San Juan are level on 52.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, San Juan 58: San Juan leads by 3 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, San Juan 38: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, San Juan 50: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, San Juan 38: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, San Juan 55: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, San Juan 40: San Juan leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and San Juan.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

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

San Juan
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSan Juan

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 Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSan Juan
Official language-Spanish, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m3 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSan Juan
City population383,997342,259
People per km²4232,847
Museums within 10 km1618
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 San Juan 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.