VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

New Orleans or Sydney?

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
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Sydney 77: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Sydney 60: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Sydney 60: New Orleans leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 43 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Sydney 50: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 14 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Sydney 22: New Orleans leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Sydney 73: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Sydney.

Your match

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

New Orleans
54match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansSydney
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation-2 m6 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansSydney
City population383,9975,450,496
People per km²423449
Museums within 10 km1638
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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