VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Toronto?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Toronto for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Toronto leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Toronto 70: New Orleans leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Toronto 50: New Orleans leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Toronto 62: New Orleans leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Toronto 52: Toronto leads by 10 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Toronto 50: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Toronto 74: Toronto leads by 19 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 12 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Toronto 34: New Orleans leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Toronto 72: New Orleans leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Toronto 33: Toronto leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Toronto.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

New Orleans
54match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Toronto
55match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansToronto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansToronto
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation-2 m76 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansToronto
City population383,9972,794,356
People per km²4234,434
Museums within 10 km1632
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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