New Orleans or Tampa?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose New Orleans if the walking city is the point: far more museums than Tampa, many more notable places within walking distance of the centre, and a much wider choice of bars and clubs at the end of the day.
Choose Tampa if swimming shapes the trip: the sea sits 1km from the centre against 17km in New Orleans, with 10 beaches nearby and milder winter days.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Tampa leads by 36 points.36
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 75 |
| Swim season months | 7 | 8 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 21 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 17 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. New Orleans leads by 7 points.7
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 54 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 803 | 359 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 25 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. New Orleans leads by 18 points.18
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 27 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 13 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 30 | 10 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 71 | 77 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. New Orleans leads by 15 points.15
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 39 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 704 | 324 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 495 | 227 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 41 | 26 |
Nature & day trips. Tampa leads by 5 points.5
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 30 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 89 | 72 |
| Park area within 2 km | 43 hectares | 39 hectares |
Good for families. New Orleans leads by 16 points.16
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 30 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 22 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 43 hectares | 39 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 5 |
Sights concentration. New Orleans leads by 19 points.19
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 21 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 13 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. New Orleans and Tampa are level on 43.
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Tampa leads by 7 points.7
| New Orleans | Tampa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 17.1 °C to 33 °C | 21.5 °C to 32.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 94 mm to 194 mm | 36 mm to 228 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
New Orleans concentrates what it has in a small area: many more museums than Tampa, about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and twice as many bars and clubs, most of them central. Neither has a UNESCO-listed site within day-trip reach.
Tampa is built for the water: the sea is 1km from the centre against 17km in New Orleans, 10 beaches nearby against 3, and 8 months of the year with sea at 21°C or more. Winter days also stay milder.
Where they are alike
Neither is strong on getting out of town. 6% of the land around Tampa is protected against 4% around New Orleans, and the two have much the same park space near their centres, so day trips are a supplement rather than a reason to pick either.
Eating and the weather land close too. New Orleans has more restaurants near the centre, Tampa a somewhat wider range of kitchens. Both peak at 33°C in high summer, with the sea reaching 30°C in August.
Which traveller are you?
Museum-goers and walkers should take New Orleans. It has many more museums and about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so days can be built on foot rather than around driving between sights.
Swimmers should take Tampa. The sea is 1km from the centre, 10 beaches lie nearby, and the water sits at 21°C or more for 8 months, which stretches swimming well beyond summer.
Families are a split decision. Tampa has 5 theme parks within reach against New Orleans's 1, plus the beaches. New Orleans has many more tourist attractions near the centre and similar park space, which suits older children.
What the numbers don't tell you
There is no daily budget figure for either city, so no cost comparison between them is possible. The value figure both carry is a national price level, identical for the two by construction; it says nothing about which trip works out dearer, and neither can be called the better buy.
The sunshine figure is missing for New Orleans, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And Tampa's beach strength sits partly in its wettest months: August brings 228mm alongside sea at 30°C.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).
New Orleans is at its best in October, when days reach 27°C and rain falls back to 94mm, its driest month of the year. Spring is the other window, warm but noticeably wetter, and midsummer is hot with heavy rain throughout.
Tampa works across a longer stretch. March and April run 25-28°C on about 64mm, and November is drier still at 36mm. Winter days stay near 22°C. Its summer is the wetter of the two, peaking at 228mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | New Orleans | Tampa |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 55 m €254-325 1 stop MSY · 18 km | 2 h 35 m €178-237 1 stop TPA · 8 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 15 m €208-268 1 stop MSY · 18 km | 2 h 35 m €176-204 1 stop TPA · 8 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 10 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
| PhiladelphiaPHL, TTN | 2 h 45 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 25 m €95-125 1 stop TPA · 8 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 1 h 30 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 25 m €163-176 1 stop TPA · 8 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 30 m €106-150 1 stop MSY · 18 km | 1 h 25 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 3 h 50 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 4 h 45 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 1 h 15 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 2 h 10 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
| CancunCUN | 1 h 55 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 9 h 25 m no fares MSY · 18 km | 9 h 0 m no fares TPA · 8 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | New Orleans | Tampa |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | -2 m | 30 m |
| Main airport | Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre50 non-stop destinations | Tampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre99 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | New Orleans | Tampa |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 383,997 | 384,959 |
| People per km² | 423 | 848 |
| Museums within 10 km | 16 | 6 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 39 | 47 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 7 months | 8 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or Tampa somewhere new.