New Orleans is a city to walk, eat and listen in, and most of it is closer together than it looks on a map. Live jazz at Preservation Hall and on Frenchmen Street, and beignets at Café Du Monde, are covered on the USA page; this page adds the rest of a first trip: the streetcar and the Garden District, the history in the Cabildo and the National WWII Museum, the workshops of Carnival, a swamp by boat, and the brass bands and second lines that belong to the neighbourhoods.
Think of it as the French Quarter plus three directions. Upriver, the St. Charles streetcar runs through the Garden District to Uptown; across Rampart Street lies Tremé; out along Canal Street are City Park and its art museum. The swamp and the Whitney Plantation take a half day out of town, by tour or by car.
Take a swamp boat into the bayous outside the city
Honey Island Swamp near Slidell, or Lafitte
Half a day with transfersBook ahead
Swamps start less than an hour from the French Quarter, and the choice is a fast airboat or a slow, shaded boat.
What it is
The swamps start less than an hour from the French Quarter, and the decision is the boat. Airboats, like those of Airboat Adventures at Lafitte, about 35 minutes south, are fast and loud and skim shallow marsh that bigger boats cannot reach; they carry 6 to 30 people and take no children under 5, pregnant women or anyone with neck or back injuries. Covered flat boats and pontoons are slower, shaded and fine for all ages.
How to do it
Dr. Wagner's Honey Island Swamp Tours, near Slidell, has run two-hour narrated tours of one of the least-altered river swamps in the country since 1982, with hotel pickup. Book ahead.
Good to know
Alligators bask on sunny days above about 65°F (18°C), so a winter trip shows more birds than gators. Skip the Barataria Preserve: most of its trails are closed for repairs until about 2028.
Walk the Garden District and tour Lafayette Cemetery No. 1
Garden District, Uptown
2 to 3 hoursBook ahead
Mansions and live oaks seen from the sidewalk, and a cemetery from 1833 reopened for small guided tours.
What it is
The Garden District is the grid of mansions and live oaks between St. Charles Avenue, Jackson Avenue, Magazine Street and Louisiana Avenue, about 20 minutes by streetcar from Canal Street. Nearly every house is a private home, so you admire them from the sidewalk. The news is Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, opened in 1833 and closed by the city in 2019, which has reopened for guided tours only.
How to do it
The visitor bureau's self-guided route takes two to three hours and passes the Buckner Mansion of American Horror Story: Coven. Save Our Cemeteries is the sole cemetery provider, with 90-minute small-group tours at $30 for adults, so book ahead. Finish on Magazine Street, or at Commander's Palace, which has a dress code.
Good to know
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, beside the French Quarter, where Marie Laveau is believed to lie, also admits visitors only on a tour.
Ride the St. Charles streetcar under the live oaks
St. Charles Avenue, from Canal Street to Carrollton
Half a day with stopsNo booking needed
The oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, with green cars from 1923 and 1924 still doing most of the work.
What it is
The St. Charles line opened in 1835 and is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, and green Perley Thomas cars built in 1923 and 1924 still do most of the work. It runs upriver along St. Charles Avenue under the oaks, past the Garden District, Loyola and Tulane universities and Audubon Park, to the end of the line at Carrollton and Claiborne, about 6.6 miles out.
How to do it
Board on Canal Street at Carondelet. It runs 24 hours, roughly every 9 minutes from 7 am to 10 pm. A ride costs $1.25 in exact change; better, buy the $3 one-day Jazzy Pass in the Le Pass app and hop off as often as you like.
Good to know
The historic cars are not wheelchair accessible, but accessible buses follow the same route. On parade days, service along the route is suspended.
Follow one soldier's war at the National WWII Museum
945 Magazine Street, Warehouse District
Half a dayBook ahead
The D-Day landing craft were built in this city, and a B-17E bomber hangs beside a Mustang and a Corsair.
What it is
Andrew Higgins built his landing craft, the Higgins boats of D-Day, in New Orleans, which is why the national museum of the Second World War stands here, at 945 Magazine Street in the Warehouse District. It opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum and now fills several pavilions: the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, with a Higgins boat; the Road to Berlin and Road to Tokyo galleries; and the Boeing Center, where a B-17E bomber, My Gal Sal, hangs beside a P-51 Mustang and a Corsair.
How to do it
You collect a dog tag on the way in and, in the Liberation Pavilion, touch it to screens to follow one person's war. It opens daily from 9 am to 5 pm, and adults pay $37. Beyond All Boundaries, a 48-minute 4D film shown hourly from 10 am, costs $9 extra.
Good to know
A second-day pass costs $15, and many visitors need it.
See where Louisiana became American at the Cabildo
Jackson Square, French Quarter
1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed
The Spanish colonial city hall where the Louisiana Purchase transfer took place in 1803, on the French Quarter's old parade ground.
What it is
Jackson Square is the old parade ground of the French Quarter, with St. Louis Cathedral in the middle and two near-twin buildings either side of it. On the left as you face the cathedral stands the Cabildo, at 701 Chartres Street, the Spanish colonial city hall where the Louisiana Purchase transfer took place in 1803. Since 1911 it has housed the Louisiana State Museum, with exhibits on Louisiana's history from its settlement to Reconstruction.
How to do it
In 2024 it opened Tuesday to Sunday from 9 am to 4 pm, with the last tickets sold at 3:30 pm. The Presbytère on the other side, built in 1813 to match it, holds the museum's Mardi Gras and Hurricane Katrina exhibitions.
Floats for Rex, Zulu and the biggest super krewes are sculpted and painted here all year, the closest you get outside Carnival.
What it is
Mardi Gras World is the working float den of Kern Studios, where floats for Rex, Zulu and the biggest super krewes are designed, sculpted and painted all year, at 1380 Port of New Orleans Place, at the south end of the Convention Center. Outside Carnival, it is as close as you get to the parades. The one-hour guided tour starts with a slice of king cake and a 15-minute film on Carnival history, then walks the studio floor past finished floats, giant foam figures and artists at work.
How to do it
Tours leave every 30 minutes from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Mardi Gras day. Book online and ask for the free shuttle from 10 downtown pick-up points.
Good to know
For the real thing, the 2027 season runs from 6 January to Mardi Gras day, 9 February.
Learn gumbo and pralines at a French Quarter cooking class
New Orleans School of Cooking, 524 St. Louis Street
2.5 to 3 hoursBook ahead
A chef cooks gumbo or jambalaya and pralines and tells each dish's story, or you cook a whole dinner yourself.
What it is
The New Orleans School of Cooking has taught visitors Creole and Cajun cooking since 1980, in a renovated molasses warehouse at 524 St. Louis Street in the French Quarter. The decision is how much you want to cook. Demonstration classes suit all ages: a chef cooks a full meal, gumbo or jambalaya with a dessert such as pralines, and tells the story of each dish while you watch, and then you eat it. In the hands-on class, for adults 18 and over, you cut, season and cook a whole dinner at shared cooktops, at most 10 people, then sit down to it.
How to do it
Demonstrations run daily at 10 am, two and a half hours with four dishes, and at 2 pm with three. The hands-on class takes about three hours at 10 am or 6 pm. Book online.
Good to know
Local beer, wine, lemonade and iced tea are included.
Cruise the Mississippi on a paddle-wheeler with a jazz band
Toulouse Street Wharf, French Quarter
2 hoursBook ahead
Two-hour jazz cruises on the Mississippi from the French Quarter, aboard the Natchez or its sister sternwheeler.
What it is
The Steamboat Natchez, which bills itself as the last authentic steamboat on the Mississippi, and its sister sternwheeler, the Riverboat City of New Orleans, sail from the wharf at the foot of Toulouse Street, behind Jax Brewery in the French Quarter. The two-hour jazz cruises leave at 11:30 am, 2:30 pm and 7 pm, boarding half an hour earlier, and the day sailings add narration on the port and the skyline.
How to do it
In late 2026 a daytime cruise costs $43.50, or $65 with a Creole lunch, and the evening jazz cruise $58, or $107.50 with the dinner buffet. Reserve the dinner cruise; daytime tickets sell up to departure.
Good to know
The company can swap the boats at any time, so if the Natchez's steam engine room and calliope matter to you, ask which one sails your date.
Face the history of slavery at the Whitney Plantation
Whitney Plantation, Wallace, on the River Road
Half a day from New OrleansBook ahead
The only plantation museum in Louisiana focused solely on slavery, with memorials that name the people enslaved here.
What it is
Whitney Plantation is the only plantation museum in Louisiana with an exclusive focus on slavery, told through the people forced to grow indigo, sugar and rice here. Sixteen original structures remain, including the Big House and two slave cabins, beside memorials that name the people enslaved here and across Louisiana.
How to do it
It stands on Highway 18, the Great River Road, at Wallace, about 40 miles west of downtown on I-10 and then a short way along the river (GPS may say Edgard). It opens 9:30 am to 4:30 pm except Tuesdays, with last entry at 3 pm. The self-guided audio tour, in six languages, costs $25 and takes about 70 minutes; the hourly guided tour, $32, adds the upstairs of the Big House. Allow two hours.
Good to know
Uber and Lyft rarely pick up out here, so drive or book a tour from New Orleans.
See Mardi Gras Indian suits at Tremé's Backstreet Cultural Museum
Tremé, 1531 St. Philip Street
2 to 3 hoursNo booking needed
Much of New Orleans' street culture comes from here, from Congo Square to the Baby Dolls and the Skull and Bone gangs.
What it is
Tremé, across Rampart Street from the French Quarter, grew from the 1810s as the main neighbourhood of the city's free people of colour, and much of New Orleans' street culture comes from here. The Backstreet Cultural Museum was founded by Sylvester "Hawk" Francis, who filmed and photographed Black Masking Indians, social aid and pleasure clubs and jazz funerals from the 1970s. Its rooms hold beaded Mardi Gras Indian suits and the costumes of the Baby Dolls and the Skull and Bone gangs.
How to do it
Start at Congo Square, inside Louis Armstrong Park, where enslaved people gathered on Sundays to dance. Then walk to the museum, 1531 St. Philip Street, open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm; adults pay $25.
Good to know
The museum also runs second line tours with a guide, Hollis. St. Augustine Church, nearby, is the oldest African American Catholic parish in the country.
Follow a Sunday second line, then a brass band at night
Neighbourhood streets on Sundays, clubs at night
An afternoon and an eveningFree
Fall in behind a brass band and a club in its finery on a neighbourhood parade most Sundays, no ticket needed.
What it is
A second line is a neighbourhood parade: a social aid and pleasure club turns out in its finery and dances behind a brass band through its streets, and everyone who follows, dancing with parasols and handkerchiefs, is the second line. The season runs most of the year, with breaks for holidays and the hottest weeks of summer, and there is a parade most Sundays. For the music without the parade, brass bands play clubs all week, and the Rebirth Brass Band has long held a Tuesday night gig.
How to do it
WWOZ, the city's community radio station, is where you find out where the next one starts, and it reads out the day's live music listings at the top of every odd-numbered hour. Nobody sells tickets: find the route, wait along it and fall in.
Good to know
Longer parades stop at bars on the way, where followers can buy a drink.
Walk the Besthoff Sculpture Garden under City Park's oaks
City Park and NOMA, Mid-City
Half a dayFree
The world's largest collection of mature live oaks, some over 600 years old, and 100 sculptures around two lagoons.
What it is
City Park covers 1,300 acres, half as big again as Central Park, and holds the world's largest collection of mature live oaks, some over 600 years old. Its best free hour is the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden beside the New Orleans Museum of Art: about 11 acres of pines, magnolias and oaks around two lagoons, with 100 sculptures, doubled in size in 2019.
How to do it
The garden opens daily, 10 am to 6 pm from April to September and to 5 pm from October to March, closing on Mardi Gras and a few holidays. NOMA opens Tuesday to Sunday, until 7 pm on Wednesdays; visitors from outside Louisiana pay $23. Take the Canal/City Park streetcar, line 48, from Canal Street to the end of the line, 30 to 45 minutes.
Good to know
The park's old Casino building has a Café du Monde.
Hear live jazz at Preservation Hall and on Frenchmen Street
New Orleans, Louisiana
An eveningBook ahead
Two very different rooms: traditional jazz in 45-minute sets at Preservation Hall, then bands every night in the small clubs of Frenchmen Street.
What it is
Preservation Hall, at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, plays 45-minute sets of traditional New Orleans jazz most nights. For the looser version, head to Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, just past the downriver edge of the Quarter, where a three-block strip of small clubs such as the Spotted Cat, d.b.a. and Snug Harbor has bands every night.
How to do it
Preservation Hall has no door sales: buy online, ideally as soon as the month's shows are published (usually about two weeks before the month starts), and arrive at least 15 minutes early. On Frenchmen Street many clubs charge no cover or a small one; buy a drink and tip the band.
Good to know
Preservation Hall is all ages, and photos and recordings are not allowed during the set. Frenchmen Street fills up from about 8 pm, earlier at weekends.
Square beignets heaped with powdered sugar and chicory café au lait, under the green-and-white awning across from Jackson Square.
What it is
The original Café Du Monde, at 800 Decatur Street in the French Market across from Jackson Square, is no longer open around the clock, whatever older guides say. The menu is short: beignets, square fried dough served three to an order under a heap of powdered sugar, and café au lait made with the house coffee and chicory.
How to do it
It opens at 7:15 am every day and closes at 11 pm from Sunday to Thursday and at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Queues for the tables under the awning can be long at busy times, so come at opening or late in the evening for a quieter seat. The French Market and the riverside Moonwalk promenade are steps away for a walk afterwards.
Good to know
Hold your breath when you bite, and do not wear black: the sugar goes everywhere.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is in Kenner, west of the city. The RTA 202 Airport Express bus leaves from Level 1 baggage claim, outside Door 2, and runs downtown along Poydras Street for $1.25 in about 30 to 40 minutes. Taxis charge a flat fare to the French Quarter and the Central Business District. Amtrak trains arrive at Union Passenger Terminal: the City of New Orleans daily from Chicago, the Crescent daily from New York through Washington and Atlanta, and the Sunset Limited three days a week from Los Angeles.
Getting around
You do not need a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny, the Central Business District and the Warehouse District sit within about 20 minutes' walk of each other, and the streetcars cover the rest: the St. Charles line to the Garden District and Uptown, the Canal lines to City Park and the cemeteries, and the Riverfront line along the river. A ride costs $1.25, and a Jazzy Pass, bought in the RTA's Le Pass app, $3 for one day or $8 for three. Downtown hotels charge $30 to $50 a night for parking.
How many days
In must30's view, four days is a good first visit: one for the French Quarter and Jackson Square, one for the streetcar, the Garden District and the WWII Museum, one out of town for the swamp or the Whitney Plantation, and one for City Park, Tremé and a cooking class. Keep every evening for music. With a weekend, stay with the Quarter and the Garden District and add a single trip out of town.
When to go
February to May and late October to November are the comfortable months. Carnival starts on Twelfth Night, 6 January, and ends on Mardi Gras day, which falls on 9 February in 2027, with weeks of parades in between. Jazz Fest fills the last weekend of April and the first of May, and the free French Quarter Festival usually comes the week before. Summer highs reach about 94°F (34°C), with heat indices near 100°F, and the hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, most active in September.
Where to base yourself
The French Quarter puts you on foot from Jackson Square, the river and Frenchmen Street, but it is loud at night, especially near Bourbon Street. The Central Business District and the Warehouse District, across Canal Street, have the big hotels, the WWII Museum and the start of every streetcar line. The Garden District and Uptown, along the St. Charles line, have small hotels in old mansions and quieter nights, about 20 minutes by streetcar from Canal Street.
Questions travellers ask
Is Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 open again?
Yes, but by guided tour only. The city closed it to visitors in 2019; it has reopened with Save Our Cemeteries, part of the Preservation Resource Center, as its only tour provider, running 90-minute small-group tours at $30 for adults. Book ahead, because you cannot walk in on your own.
Do I need a car in New Orleans?
No. The French Quarter, the Garden District, City Park and Tremé are all on foot or by streetcar, and downtown hotels charge $30 to $50 a night to park. Rent a car only for the swamps or the River Road, or join a tour with hotel pickup.
When is Mardi Gras in 2027?
Mardi Gras day is Tuesday 9 February 2027. The Carnival season starts on 6 January, with weeks of parades in between. Hotels along the parade routes book up early, and many attractions, including Mardi Gras World and the WWII Museum, close on Mardi Gras day itself.
Which swamp tour is best from New Orleans?
Choose the boat first. Airboats are fast and loud and reach shallow marsh, but they do not take children under 5 or pregnant passengers; covered flat boats and pontoons are slower and suit everyone. Honey Island near Slidell and Lafitte to the south are both under an hour away, and most operators pick up at hotels.
How many days do you need in New Orleans?
In must30's view, four: two for the French Quarter, the Garden District and the museums, one for a swamp tour or the Whitney Plantation, and one for City Park and Tremé. Three days work if you skip the trip out of town.
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