Volume Level
This is the clearest dividing line. New Orleans celebrates for a living. Locals have a ritual for almost everything, there seems to be a parade or festival most weekends and world-class players perform in tiny clubs for the price of a drink. You can legally carry a drink in a plastic go-cup in the French Quarter. Newlyweds fit right in.
Charleston is romance at conversation volume. A typical day is a morning in a house museum, an afternoon at the beach and dinner at a celebrated restaurant, then a walk past gas lamps and church steeples. Nightlife exists, with a lively cocktail scene in restored warehouses on upper King Street, but it is not the main event.
Couples who light up at live music and crowds will remember New Orleans for decades. Couples who would rather finish a bottle of wine on an inn's piazza than chase a band down Frenchmen Street will be happier in Charleston.
Creole Kitchens and Lowcountry Tables
Both are among the best food cities in America, with different accents. New Orleans cooking blends French, Spanish, West African, Caribbean and Native American roots. Creole classics include gumbo, turtle soup and shrimp rémoulade in grand dining rooms where waiters have worked for decades. Cajun dishes like jambalaya and boudin come from the countryside to the west. Eat a po'boy, find boiled crawfish by the pound from roughly January through June and share beignets early before the lines form. The Sazerac is the official cocktail.
Charleston's Lowcountry kitchen draws on rice, shrimp, oysters, okra and the cooking traditions of enslaved West Africans and their Gullah Geechee descendants. Order shrimp and grits, she-crab soup and Carolina Gold rice. Cooler months bring oyster roasts. Shem Creek has dockside tables at sunset.
Book ahead in both. Charleston's best tables fill weeks out in spring, while New Orleans restaurants fill fast on weekends and festival dates.
Courtyards or Gaslit Inns
In New Orleans, choose a room with a courtyard to retreat to. Soniat House, a set of 1800s Creole townhouses with private courtyards on the quieter lower end of the French Quarter, is a long-standing couples favorite. Hotel Peter and Paul in the Marigny fills a former church, rectory, convent and schoolhouse, a short walk from Frenchmen Street. Windsor Court in the Central Business District offers large suites and afternoon tea. Garden District bed and breakfasts suit couples who want leafy calm. Avoid rooms facing Bourbon Street unless you enjoy noise until 4 a.m.
Charleston's best stays are historic inns on the peninsula. Wentworth Mansion, a Gilded Age house with gas fireplaces and a rooftop cupola, is a classic. Zero George wraps restored 1800s homes around a courtyard with a small cooking school. The Dewberry has a polished modern feel and a rooftop bar, while The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island makes a beach finale about 45 minutes away.
Beyond the Table
New Orleans days revolve around music and atmosphere. Spend an evening hopping between clubs on Frenchmen Street and catch a short traditional jazz set at Preservation Hall, buying tickets ahead. Ride the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District for a long jazz brunch. Paddle a cypress swamp in a small boat with herons and the odd alligator. Take a sunset cruise on the steamboat Natchez, then have a drink at the slowly revolving Carousel Bar.
Charleston's days mix history and the outdoors. Walk the Battery and White Point Garden at sunset, then the lanes south of Broad. Take the ferry to Fort Sumter for the best view of the skyline. Visit McLeod Plantation Historic Site, which tells the story of the people enslaved there with care, or the terraced gardens at Middleton Place. Bike Sullivan's Island, picnic under the Angel Oak and kayak the salt marsh at sunset, sometimes with dolphins nearby.
Seasons and Festivals
New Orleans is at its best from February through May, with mild days, crawfish season and a packed festival calendar. Mardi Gras in February or early March is thrilling but crowded and expensive, so go only if that is the point. The French Quarter Festival in April and Jazz Fest across two weekends in late April and early May draw music lovers. October and November are lovely and calmer.
Charleston's classic season is mid-March into May, when azaleas and wisteria bloom. The Spoleto Festival fills the city for about two weeks around late May and early June. October and November bring lower humidity and the return of oyster season.
Summer is hot and very humid in both, with afternoon storms. Hurricane season runs June through November, peaking August to October. Winter is mild and quiet, with lower rates. New Orleans adds holiday lights and Réveillon dinners in December, while Charleston suits a cozy, food-focused trip.
Costs and Getting Around
Outside festival dates, good New Orleans courtyard hotels run roughly $250 to $600 a night, but rates can double during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Charleston's best peninsula inns run roughly $400 to $900 a night in spring, with lower winter rates. Summer brings deals in New Orleans. All figures are approximate.
Neither city needs a car. In New Orleans, walk the Quarter and Marigny, ride the streetcars and use rideshares at night, sticking to busy, well-lit streets. Carry small bills for tipping musicians and cash-only cover charges. In Charleston, most of the peninsula is within a 20-minute walk, with pedicabs and the free DASH trolley filling gaps. Rent a car only for beach days.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) has nonstops from most major US cities and sits about 25 minutes from the French Quarter. Charleston International Airport (CHS) has nonstops from much of the East Coast and Midwest and is about 20 minutes from downtown.
Pairing Each One
These two are far apart, roughly 10 to 11 hours by road, so most couples choose one or connect them with a short flight. Each pairs better with its own neighbors.
From New Orleans, add a few days in Louisiana's Cajun country around Lafayette, about two and a half hours west, for zydeco and boudin. The Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches are about an hour and a half away.
From Charleston, Savannah is about two hours south, which makes one of the easiest honeymoon road trips in the country. Kiawah Island and the beaches of Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms add sand without a long drive.
If you really want both cities, give each three or four nights and fly between them. Start in New Orleans while you have the stamina for late nights, then finish in Charleston with slower days and a beach. Bring comfortable shoes for uneven sidewalks and bug spray for warm evenings in either city.
