VacationSelector
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New Orleans or Wilmington?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. New Orleans 84, Wilmington 48: New Orleans leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. New Orleans 67, Wilmington 40: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. New Orleans 85, Wilmington 40: New Orleans leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. New Orleans 42, Wilmington 58: Wilmington leads by 16 points.
Day trips. New Orleans 52, Wilmington 45: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Good for families. New Orleans 55, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. New Orleans 55, Wilmington 28: New Orleans leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. New Orleans 54, Wilmington 33: New Orleans leads by 21 points.
Affordability. New Orleans 40, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. New Orleans 80, Wilmington 40: New Orleans leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New Orleans 25, Wilmington 33: Wilmington 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 Wilmington.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
New OrleansWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew OrleansWilmington
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
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 m9 m
Main airportLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew OrleansWilmington
City population383,997115,451
People per km²423839
Museums within 10 km162
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Wilmington 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.