VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Santo Domingo?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Santo Domingo 58: New Orleans leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Santo Domingo 64: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Santo Domingo 66: New Orleans leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Santo Domingo 36: New Orleans leads by 6 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Santo Domingo 44: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Santo Domingo 40: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Santo Domingo 40: New Orleans leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Santo Domingo 44: New Orleans leads by 10 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Santo Domingo 46: New Orleans leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Santo Domingo 22: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

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

Santo Domingo
49match

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
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSanto Domingo
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m14 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSanto Domingo
City population383,9972,201,941
People per km²4231,691
Museums within 10 km1610
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 Santo Domingo 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.