VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Steamboat Springs 30: New Orleans leads by 54 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Steamboat Springs 14: New Orleans leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Steamboat Springs 20: New Orleans leads by 65 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 46 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Steamboat Springs 12: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 7 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Steamboat Springs 46: New Orleans leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Steamboat Springs 22: New Orleans leads by 32 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Steamboat Springs 17: New Orleans leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Steamboat Springs 28: New Orleans leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Steamboat Springs.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSteamboat Springs
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m2,052 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSteamboat Springs
City population383,99713,224
People per km²423503
Museums within 10 km160
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.