VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Valparaiso?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Valparaiso 50: New Orleans leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Valparaiso 62: New Orleans leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Valparaiso 56: New Orleans leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 18 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 11 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Valparaiso 33: New Orleans leads by 22 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Valparaiso 44: New Orleans leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Valparaiso 30: New Orleans leads by 24 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Valparaiso 60: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Valparaiso 38: New Orleans leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Valparaiso 18: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New Orleans and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

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
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansValparaiso
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation-2 m21 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansValparaiso
City population383,997296,655
People per km²4236,180
Museums within 10 km1617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New Orleans or Valparaiso 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.