VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Sao Paulo?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Sao Paulo leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans and Sao Paulo are level on 84.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Sao Paulo 60: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Sao Paulo 48: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Sao Paulo 47: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Sao Paulo 52: New Orleans leads by 3 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Sao Paulo 44: New Orleans leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Sao Paulo 76: New Orleans leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans and Sao Paulo are level on 25.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

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
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSao Paulo
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation-2 m760 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSao Paulo
City population383,99711,451,999
People per km²4237,519
Museums within 10 km1690
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or Sao Paulo 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.