---
title: "Top 10 Things To Do in New Orleans, United States | Wimup"
description: "The 10 best things to do in New Orleans, plus the jazz rooms, Creole dining rooms, bars and neighborhoods worth your time. Mapped and ranked."
url: https://wimup.com/city/new-orleans
type: City guide
updated: 2026-08-29
publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com)
---

# Top 10 Things To Do in New Orleans

New Orleans, United States · North America · By Wimup Editorial, 15 min read

New Orleans is the least American-feeling city in the United States, and it got that way honestly. The French founded it in 1718, Spain ran it for four decades, and the US only bought it in 1803, by which point the grid, the Catholicism, the cooking and the habit of hiring a band for a funeral were already set.

## Quick answer

Give the first day to the French Quarter and get it out of your system: Jackson Square, the cathedral, beignets at Café du Monde, then Royal Street rather than Bourbon. Day two is the National WWII Museum, then the St. Charles streetcar through the Garden District. Keep the third for City Park, a po-boy at Parkway and Congo Square. Every night ends with music.

## Quick facts

- **Best months:** Mar · Apr · Oct · Nov
- **Ideal length:** 3 days
- **Budget per day:** $120–230
- **Language:** English
- **Getting around:** Streetcars, buses & walking
- **Tourism board:** [Official site](https://www.neworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## The 10 best things to do in New Orleans

### 1. The National WWII Museum

Museum · 945 Magazine St, Warehouse District

Opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum and designated by Congress as the country's official museum of the war. It has grown into a campus of pavilions covering the road to war and both theatres. Oral histories run through all of it, which is what separates this from a hall of hardware.

- **Time:** 3 to 5 hours
- **Cost:** Ticketed
- **Best at:** Weekday mornings
- **Tip:** Start at the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion and work forward, or the Pacific galleries will be a blur by the time you reach them.

Links: [Website](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 2. Jackson Square and the French Quarter

Historic district · Jackson Square, 700 Decatur St, French Quarter

The Vieux Carré is the original city, laid out as a grid in the 1720s. The cathedral holds the middle of the square, flanked by the Cabildo, where the Louisiana Purchase was transferred in 1803. Walk Royal and Chartres for the ironwork, and treat Bourbon Street as something to see once.

- **Time:** Half a day
- **Cost:** Free
- **Best at:** Early morning
- **Tip:** The square is quiet and photographable before nine, and unrecognisable by noon.

Links: [Website](https://www.nps.gov/jazz/index.htm?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 3. Preservation Hall

Music venue · 726 St Peter St, French Quarter

A bare room with a few benches, no amplification and a rotating collective of about sixty musicians who have kept traditional New Orleans jazz playing here since 1961. Nothing about it has been prettied up, and that is the point: the closest a visitor gets to the music in the room it came from.

- **Time:** 45 minutes
- **Cost:** Ticketed
- **Best at:** Evening
- **Tip:** Tickets for the nightly shows are sold online. The pavement queue is for whatever seats are left.

Links: [Website](https://www.preservationhall.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 4. Frenchmen Street after dark

Live music · Frenchmen St, Faubourg Marigny

Three blocks on the far side of Esplanade, and the answer to anyone who leaves Bourbon Street disappointed. The Spotted Cat runs trad jazz to a standing crowd, Snug Harbor is the seated room, d.b.a. books brass. Walk the strip, listen at the doors, and go in where the band sounds right.

- **Time:** An evening
- **Cost:** Varies by room
- **Best at:** From 9pm
- **Tip:** Most rooms take a cover or a one-drink minimum at the door, and the good sets start late.

Links: [Website](https://www.neworleans.com/plan/streets/frenchmen-street/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 5. The St. Charles Avenue streetcar to the Garden District

Streetcar · St Charles Ave at Canal St, CBD

The oldest continuously operating street railway in the world, running since 1835. The olive-green cars date from the 1920s, with wooden seats and windows that open, which is the correct way to travel under the live oaks. Get off at Washington Avenue for the Garden District.

- **Time:** 90 minutes round trip
- **Cost:** Streetcar fare
- **Best at:** Late afternoon
- **Tip:** Sit on the river side heading uptown for the mansions, and have exact change or the RTA app before you board.

Links: [Website](https://www.norta.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 6. Café du Monde and the French Market

Café · 800 Decatur St, French Quarter

Beignets under an unreasonable quantity of powdered sugar, and café au lait cut with chicory, a wartime economy that became the local taste. The original stand has been on this corner since 1862. Central Grocery, where the muffuletta was invented in 1906, is two doors along.

- **Time:** 45 minutes
- **Cost:** Inexpensive
- **Best at:** Before 8am or after 11pm
- **Tip:** Wear something you do not mind dusting off, and never exhale over the plate.

Links: [Website](https://shop.cafedumonde.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 7. City Park, NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

Park & museum · 1 Collins Diboll Cir, City Park, Mid-City

Thirteen hundred acres of live oaks and lagoons, larger than Central Park and a good deal less manicured. The art museum has anchored it since 1911, and the sculpture garden beside it holds around ninety works among the oaks, free to walk into.

- **Time:** 3 hours
- **Cost:** Park and sculpture garden free
- **Best at:** Morning
- **Tip:** The sculpture garden and the museum are separate visits. Do the garden first while the light is still low through the oaks.

Links: [Website](https://noma.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 8. Congo Square and Louis Armstrong Park

Historic site · 701 N Rampart St, Tremé

Thirty-two acres in the Tremé, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of free people of colour in the country. Congo Square is the ground where enslaved and free Africans gathered on Sundays to trade, drum and dance, and the rhythms that survived there are widely credited as a root of jazz.

- **Time:** 1 hour
- **Cost:** Free
- **Best at:** Daytime
- **Tip:** Drummers still gather in the square on Sunday afternoons. Stand at the edge and listen rather than filming from the middle.

Links: [Website](https://www.nps.gov/jazz/index.htm?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 9. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Cemetery · 425 Basin St, Tremé

Opened in 1789 and the oldest cemetery still standing here. The water table sits close enough to the surface that New Orleans buries above ground, so this is a walled block of stuccoed tombs and wall vaults. The Archdiocese closed it to unaccompanied visitors, so you go in with a licensed guide or not at all.

- **Time:** 1 hour
- **Cost:** Guided tours only
- **Best at:** Mid-morning
- **Tip:** Book a licensed tour in advance. Turning up at the gate alone will not get you through it.

Links: [Website](https://nolacatholiccemeteries.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

### 10. The Barataria Preserve swamp boardwalks

Nature · 6588 Barataria Blvd, Marrero

Half an hour south, and the quickest honest look at the landscape New Orleans was built on: boardwalk trails over cypress swamp, bayou and floating marsh, with alligators and herons. It costs nothing, needs no boat and no guide, and explains south Louisiana better than any tour bus.

- **Time:** 2 to 3 hours
- **Cost:** Free
- **Best at:** Early morning
- **Tip:** You need a car or a rideshare, and insect repellent from March onwards is not optional.

Links: [Website](https://www.nps.gov/jela/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best restaurants in New Orleans

Creole dining rooms with a century behind them, Cajun butchery, and the counters the city eats at every week.

1. **Commander’s Palace** (Creole · 1403 Washington Ave · Garden District): The turquoise Victorian on Washington Avenue has been a restaurant since 1893, and its kitchen has launched more Louisiana chefs than any other. [Website](https://www.commanderspalace.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Galatoire’s** (French-Creole · 209 Bourbon St · French Quarter): French-Creole, family-run, and at this Bourbon Street address since 1905. The downstairs room takes no reservations and is run by regulars and their waiters. [Website](https://www.galatoires.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Dooky Chase’s Restaurant** (Creole · 2301 Orleans Ave · Tremé): Leah Chase ran this Tremé kitchen for seventy years and made it a Creole institution and a civil-rights meeting room at the same time. [Website](https://www.dookychaserestaurants.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **Willie Mae’s** (Southern · 898 Baronne St · Central City): The fried chicken that won a James Beard America's Classics award in 2005, now served from a downtown room the family opened in 2024. Butter beans on the side. [Website](https://williemaesnola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Cochon** (Cajun · 930 Tchoupitoulas St · Warehouse District): Cajun butchery: whole hog, boudin, cracklins and smoked ham hocks, in a hard-surfaced room that sounds full even when it is half empty. [Website](https://cochonrestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Pêche Seafood Grill** (Seafood · 800 Magazine St · Warehouse District): Gulf seafood cooked whole over a wood fire. The whole grilled fish and the smoked tuna dip are what the room is built around, and the raw bar is the best seat for one. [Website](https://www.pecherestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
7. **Herbsaint** (French-southern · 701 St Charles Ave · Warehouse District): A corner room on St. Charles Avenue since 2000, and still where the city eats when it wants a proper dinner without ceremony. French and southern in equal measure. [Website](https://www.herbsaint.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
8. **Compère Lapin** (Caribbean-Creole · 535 Tchoupitoulas St · Warehouse District): Nina Compton cooks the Caribbean she grew up with through a New Orleans lens: curried goat with sweet potato gnocchi, conch croquettes. [Website](https://comperelapin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
9. **Turkey and the Wolf** (Sandwiches · 739 Jackson Ave · Irish Channel): A sandwich shop in the Irish Channel that took a fried bologna sandwich seriously enough to become nationally famous. [Website](https://www.turkeyandthewolf.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
10. **Parkway Bakery & Tavern** (Po-boys · 538 Hagan Ave · Mid-City): Po-boys since 1911, in a Mid-City corner building. The roast beef comes debris-style, and it is the version others are measured against. [Website](https://parkwaypoorboys.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best live music in New Orleans

Eight rooms where the band matters more than the room, from a bare hall in the Quarter to a bowling alley uptown.

1. **Preservation Hall** (Trad jazz · 726 St Peter St · French Quarter): Traditional New Orleans jazz played acoustically to a few benches and a standing crowd, run by a musicians' collective since 1961. The purest listening room in the city. [Website](https://www.preservationhall.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro** (Modern jazz · 626 Frenchmen St · Faubourg Marigny): The seated modern-jazz club, with a two-level listening room and a piano that carried the Marsalis family for decades. Tickets are for a specific set. [Website](https://www.snugjazz.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **The Spotted Cat Music Club** (Trad jazz · 623 Frenchmen St · Faubourg Marigny): A narrow, standing-room bar where trad jazz and swing bands play in the window and the crowd is two deep on the pavement outside. Cash bar, and no stage. [Website](https://www.spottedcatmusicclub.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **d.b.a.** (Brass & roots · 618 Frenchmen St · Faubourg Marigny): The best beer list on Frenchmen Street attached to a room that books brass, roots and R&B. Wooden floors, pressed tin, and sound good enough to notice. [Website](https://dbaneworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Tipitina’s** (Funk & brass · 501 Napoleon Ave · Uptown): Opened in 1977 as a room for Professor Longhair to play in, and named after one of his songs. Bought by the band Galactic in 2018, so it is musician-owned again. [Website](https://www.tipitinas.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Maple Leaf Bar** (Funk & brass · 8316 Oak St · Carrollton): Open since 1974 on Oak Street and one of the longest continuously operating music clubs in New Orleans, with bands seven nights a week. Small, hot, and late. [Website](https://www.mapleleafbar.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
7. **Rock ’n’ Bowl** (Zydeco & swing · 3000 S Carrollton Ave · Mid-City): A bowling alley with a bandstand, and the most reliable place to find zydeco, swing and R&B played to people who came to dance. Bring shoes you can move in. [Website](https://rocknbowl.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
8. **Blue Nile** (Funk & brass · 532 Frenchmen St · Faubourg Marigny): Two rooms on the Esplanade end of Frenchmen, booking brass, funk and soul, with a balcony over the street. Trombone Shorty has worked this stage. [Website](https://www.bluenilelive.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best bars & cocktails in New Orleans

The city that gave the world the Sazerac and the Ramos gin fizz, in eight rooms.

1. **Carousel Bar & Lounge** (Hotel bar · 214 Royal St · French Quarter): The bar at the Hotel Monteleone is built on a fairground carousel installed in 1949, and it turns a full circle every fifteen minutes. [Website](https://hotelmonteleone.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **The Sazerac Bar** (Hotel bar · 130 Roosevelt Way · CBD): A long walnut bar under Paul Ninas murals in the Roosevelt. The Sazerac and the Ramos gin fizz are both made properly here, and the fizz is worth the wait. [Website](https://www.therooseveltneworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Napoleon House** (Historic bar · 500 Chartres St · French Quarter): A bar since 1914 in a house of 1814 whose owner reputedly offered it to the exiled emperor. Peeling plaster, classical music, and a Pimm's Cup on a hot afternoon. [Website](https://www.napoleonhouse.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop** (Historic bar · 941 Bourbon St · French Quarter): A brick-between-post cottage built between 1722 and 1732, and one of the oldest structures in the Quarter. [Website](https://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Jewel of the South** (Cocktail bar · 1026 St Louis St · French Quarter): Chris Hannah revived the name of a nineteenth-century saloon whose owner is credited with the Brandy Crusta. A cottage, a courtyard, and drinks made with real precision. [Website](https://www.jewelnola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Cure** (Cocktail bar · 4905 Freret St · Freret): The bar that started the craft cocktail revival here when it opened in a former firehouse in 2009, and pulled a whole neighbourhood back with it. [Website](https://www.curenola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
7. **Bar Tonique** (Cocktail bar · 820 N Rampart St · French Quarter): A small, unpretentious room on Rampart Street, making classics well and cheaply for people who work in the industry. The antidote to a Bourbon Street daiquiri. [Website](https://bartonique.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
8. **Latitude 29** (Tiki bar · 321 N Peters St · French Quarter): Jeff Berry spent years excavating lost tiki recipes, then opened a bar to serve them properly. Rum, ice carved rather than cracked, and a Mai Tai as written down. [Website](https://www.latitude29nola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best museums in New Orleans

Six collections, from the country’s official war museum to a Tremé front room full of Mardi Gras Indian suits.

1. **The National WWII Museum** (War history · 945 Magazine St · Warehouse District): The official museum of the Second World War in the United States, across a campus of pavilions and built around oral histories. Allow most of a day. [Website](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **New Orleans Museum of Art** (Fine art · 1 Collins Diboll Cir · City Park): The city's oldest fine arts institution, in City Park since 1911, with French and American painting and strong African and Japanese collections. [Website](https://noma.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Ogden Museum of Southern Art** (Southern art · 925 Camp St · Warehouse District): The largest collection of southern art anywhere, from self-taught painters to contemporary photography. The one museum here that explains the region rather than the city. [Website](https://ogdenmuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **The Cabildo** (History · 701 Chartres St · French Quarter): The Spanish colonial seat of government on Jackson Square, where the Louisiana Purchase was transferred in 1803. Napoleon's death mask is upstairs. [Website](https://louisianastatemuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **The Presbytère** (History · 751 Chartres St · French Quarter): The Cabildo's twin on the other side of the cathedral, with two permanent exhibitions: the history of Mardi Gras, and an unflinching account of Hurricane Katrina. [Website](https://louisianastatemuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
6. **Backstreet Cultural Museum** (Culture · 1531 St Philip St · Tremé): A small Tremé museum built around one man's archive of Mardi Gras Indian suits, pleasure club regalia and jazz funerals. Nowhere else documents this as closely. [Website](https://backstreetmuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best neighborhoods in New Orleans

Eight neighbourhoods, and what each one is actually for.

1. **French Quarter** (Historic core · French Quarter): The original city, thirteen blocks by six, with Spanish colonial architecture behind French street names because two fires took the French buildings.
2. **Faubourg Marigny** (Music & cottages · Faubourg Marigny): Immediately downriver of the Quarter, Creole cottages painted in colours no committee approved, and Frenchmen Street running through the middle of it.
3. **Bywater** (Art & shotguns · Bywater): Further downriver again: shotgun houses, artist studios, coffee roasters and the ramp up to Crescent Park. Quieter than the Marigny and further from everything.
4. **Tremé** (History & music · Tremé): One of the oldest neighbourhoods of free people of colour in the country. Congo Square and the brass band tradition come from these blocks.
5. **Garden District** (Mansions · Garden District): Antebellum mansions on oak-shaded blocks, built by Americans who arrived after the Louisiana Purchase and settled upriver of the Creoles rather than among them.
6. **Uptown and Carrollton** (Local life · Uptown): The long stretch of the streetcar line past Audubon Park and the universities, out to Oak Street and the river bend. The rooms locals fill on a weeknight.
7. **Warehouse District** (Museums & dining · Warehouse District): Nineteenth-century cotton warehouses turned into galleries, hotels and the museum quarter, with the WWII Museum and the Ogden a block apart.
8. **Algiers Point** (Across the river · Algiers Point): A ferry ride across the Mississippi and a different pace entirely: Victorian and Creole houses, and the best skyline view in New Orleans from the levee path.

## Best parks & gardens in New Orleans

Five places to get out from under the balconies, from a 1,300-acre park to a levee-top promenade.

1. **City Park** (City park · 5 Victory Ave · Mid-City): Thirteen hundred acres of live oaks and Spanish moss in Mid-City, holding the art museum, the sculpture garden, a 1906 carousel and the Storyland playground. [Website](https://neworleanscitypark.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Audubon Park** (City park · Uptown · Uptown): Uptown between St. Charles Avenue and the river, with a lagoon, a live oak canopy and a 1.8-mile loop that half the neighbourhood runs. [Website](https://audubonnatureinstitute.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Crescent Park** (Riverfront park · Marigny to Bywater · Bywater): A linear park on the levee between the Marigny and Bywater, with a rusted-steel arch bridge over the railway and an uninterrupted view of the working river. [Website](https://www.neworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **Louis Armstrong Park** (City park · 701 N Rampart St · Tremé): Thirty-two acres in Tremé holding Congo Square, the Mahalia Jackson Theater and a sculpture promenade of New Orleans musicians. The gate arch is much photographed. [Website](https://www.nps.gov/jazz/index.htm?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Longue Vue House and Gardens** (House & garden · 7 Bamboo Rd · Lakewood): An estate on the edge of the city with eight acres of designed gardens and a 1940s house kept as its owners left it. The Spanish Court fountains are the reason. [Website](https://longuevue.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Best day trips in New Orleans

Five trips out, all doable in a day with a car.

1. **Whitney Plantation** (Museum · Wallace, LA · River Road): About an hour upriver, and the only plantation museum in Louisiana told entirely from the perspective of the people enslaved on it. Opened to the public in 2014. [Website](https://whitneyplantation.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
2. **Oak Alley Plantation** (Historic site · Vacherie, LA · River Road): Twenty-eight live oaks planted about three centuries ago, in a quarter-mile alley from the house to the levee, often paired with Whitney on the same run. [Website](https://www.oakalleyplantation.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
3. **Barataria Preserve** (Nature · Marrero, LA · West Bank): Half an hour south, boardwalk trails over cypress swamp and marsh, free and open to walk without a boat or a guide. Alligators, herons and cypress knees. [Website](https://www.nps.gov/jela/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
4. **The Northshore across the Causeway** (Lake & towns · Mandeville, LA · Northshore): The Causeway runs 23.83 miles across open water, long enough that both shores drop out of sight. Abita Springs and the Tammany Trace are the reasons to cross. [Website](https://www.louisiananorthshore.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
5. **Baton Rouge** (City · Baton Rouge, LA · Up the river): Eighty miles up the Mississippi, for Huey Long's 34-storey art deco State Capitol, the tallest in the United States, and the cast-iron Gothic one beside it. [Website](https://www.visitbatonrouge.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## Festivals & annual events in New Orleans

- **Mardi Gras** (February): Carnival opens on Twelfth Night and builds through parades in the two weeks before Fat Tuesday.
- **Super Sunday** (March): The Mardi Gras Indians parade in full beaded suits on the Sunday nearest St. Joseph's Day.
- **French Quarter Festival** (April): Free stages across the Quarter and along the riverfront, and the locals' alternative to Jazz Fest. Four days in April.
- **New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival** (April): Twelve stages at the Fair Grounds over two long weekends, with headliners alongside brass bands, gospel and Mardi Gras Indians.
- **Essence Festival of Culture** (July): The largest celebration of Black culture and music, filling the Superdome at night and the convention centre by day.
- **Satchmo SummerFest** (August): A weekend of trad jazz and brass built around Louis Armstrong's birthday on 4 August, held in and around the French Quarter.
- **Southern Decadence** (September): Five days over the Labor Day weekend and one of the largest LGBTQ gatherings in the country, centred on the upper Quarter.
- **Christmas New Orleans Style** (December): Réveillon menus in the old dining rooms all month, plus caroling in Jackson Square and bonfires on the levees on Christmas Eve.

## Must-try dishes in New Orleans, United States

- **Gumbo**: A dark roux, the trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper, then seafood or chicken and andouille, over rice.
- **Po-boy**: Louisiana French bread, crisp outside and light inside, filled with fried shrimp, oysters or roast beef.
- **Beignets**: Square, yeasted, deep-fried and buried in powdered sugar, eaten three to a plate with chicory café au lait.
- **Muffuletta**: A round sesame loaf layered with mortadella, salami, provolone and olive salad, invented at Central Grocery.
- **Jambalaya**: Rice cooked in the pot with stock, sausage, chicken and often shrimp.
- **Crawfish étouffée**: Crawfish tails smothered in a blond roux with the trinity, poured over rice.
- **Red beans and rice**: Monday food, from the days when the wash took all day and a pot of beans could be left with a ham bone in it.
- **Char-grilled oysters**: Gulf oysters cooked over an open flame in garlic butter with parmesan, until the shells blacken.

## New Orleans transport & airports

- **Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)** (MSY): Eleven miles west of downtown in Kenner, with a terminal that opened in 2019. There is no rail link: the Airport Express bus runs to the CBD, and rideshare picks up from arrivals. [Website](https://flymsy.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **Streetcars and buses** (RTA): Five streetcar lines: St. Charles, Canal with its two branches, Riverfront, and Rampart-St Claude. Day and week passes are bought through the transit app or on board with exact change. [Website](https://www.norta.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **Union Passenger Terminal** (Rail): One station for Amtrak and the intercity buses: overnight to Chicago, the Crescent to New York, the Sunset Limited west to Los Angeles. The streetcar stops at the door. [Website](https://www.amtrak.com/stations/nol?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- **The Algiers ferry and getting about** (Ferry): The Canal Street ferry crosses to Algiers Point in about ten minutes and is the cheapest river view in the city. Otherwise this is a walking place. [Website](https://www.norta.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)

## New Orleans at a glance

- **Country:** United States
- **Region:** Louisiana · Orleans Parish
- **Population:** 383,997 in the city (2020 census) · about 1.26M in the metropolitan area
- **Founded:** 1718, by the French as La Nouvelle-Orléans
- **Nickname:** The Crescent City · The Big Easy · NOLA
- **Language:** English
- **Currency:** US dollar (USD)
- **Time zone:** UTC-6 · UTC-5 from March to November
- **Calling code:** +1 504
- **Airport:** MSY
- **Power:** 120V · Type A & B
- **Emergency:** 911 police, ambulance and fire

## Interesting facts

- Enslaved and free Africans gathered on Sundays in Congo Square to drum and dance, and those rhythms are widely credited as a root of jazz.
- The Louisiana Purchase was transferred to the United States in the Cabildo on Jackson Square in 1803, doubling the size of the country.
- The St. Charles Avenue line has run since 1835, the oldest continuously operating street railway in the world.
- Much of the city sits at or below sea level, so the dead are buried above ground in tombs and wall vaults.
- The Louisiana Legislature made the Sazerac the official cocktail of New Orleans in 2008, after a bid to claim it statewide failed.

## Watch

[New Orleans Travel Guide](https://wimup.com/watch/new-orleans.md), 7:29

## New Orleans travel FAQ

### How many days do you need in New Orleans?

Three. One for the French Quarter, one for the National WWII Museum and the streetcar out through the Garden District, and one for City Park, Tremé and the neighbourhoods. A fourth buys you Whitney Plantation or the Barataria swamp without rushing either.

### What is the best time of year to visit New Orleans?

October and November, or March through May. Both give you daytime temperatures in the seventies and the festival calendar running. Hurricane season officially runs from 1 June to 30 November, and July and August are genuinely difficult: high heat and higher humidity, with an afternoon thunderstorm most days.

### Is Bourbon Street worth visiting?

Walk it once, at night, to see what it is. Then leave. The music worth hearing is three blocks away on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, and the drinking worth doing is in the old hotel bars and the cocktail rooms off Rampart. Bourbon is a spectacle, not an evening.

### Is New Orleans walkable?

The French Quarter, the Marigny and the CBD are, and they connect on foot in about twenty minutes. Everything beyond that is a streetcar ride: St. Charles for the Garden District and Uptown, Canal for City Park. After dark, take a cab between neighbourhoods rather than walking the gaps.

### Where should you stay in New Orleans?

The French Quarter puts you inside the thing you came for, with the noise that implies. The Warehouse District is quieter, walkable to the museums and the best eating. The Marigny is closest to the music and cheaper, and the Garden District is the calmest option if you are happy to ride the streetcar in.

## Nearby guides

- [Mérida](https://wimup.com/city/merida.md): Mexico · 10 picks
- [Miami](https://wimup.com/city/miami.md): United States · 10 picks
- [Havana](https://wimup.com/city/havana.md): Cuba · 10 picks
- [All of North America →](https://wimup.com/north-america): 40 cities

Part of the [United States guide](https://wimup.com/country/united-states.md) · [North America](https://wimup.com/north-america.md)

## Sources

- [New Orleans tourism board](https://www.neworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The National WWII Museum (official site)](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Jackson Square and the French Quarter (official site)](https://www.nps.gov/jazz/index.htm?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Preservation Hall (official site)](https://www.preservationhall.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Frenchmen Street after dark (official site)](https://www.neworleans.com/plan/streets/frenchmen-street/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The St. Charles Avenue streetcar to the Garden District (official site)](https://www.norta.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Café du Monde and the French Market (official site)](https://shop.cafedumonde.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [City Park, NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden (official site)](https://noma.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (official site)](https://nolacatholiccemeteries.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Barataria Preserve swamp boardwalks (official site)](https://www.nps.gov/jela/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Commander’s Palace (official site)](https://www.commanderspalace.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Galatoire’s (official site)](https://www.galatoires.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Dooky Chase’s Restaurant (official site)](https://www.dookychaserestaurants.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Willie Mae’s (official site)](https://williemaesnola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Cochon (official site)](https://cochonrestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Pêche Seafood Grill (official site)](https://www.pecherestaurant.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Herbsaint (official site)](https://www.herbsaint.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Compère Lapin (official site)](https://comperelapin.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Turkey and the Wolf (official site)](https://www.turkeyandthewolf.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Parkway Bakery & Tavern (official site)](https://parkwaypoorboys.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro (official site)](https://www.snugjazz.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Spotted Cat Music Club (official site)](https://www.spottedcatmusicclub.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [d.b.a. (official site)](https://dbaneworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Tipitina’s (official site)](https://www.tipitinas.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Maple Leaf Bar (official site)](https://www.mapleleafbar.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Rock ’n’ Bowl (official site)](https://rocknbowl.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Blue Nile (official site)](https://www.bluenilelive.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Carousel Bar & Lounge (official site)](https://hotelmonteleone.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Sazerac Bar (official site)](https://www.therooseveltneworleans.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Napoleon House (official site)](https://www.napoleonhouse.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop (official site)](https://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Jewel of the South (official site)](https://www.jewelnola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Cure (official site)](https://www.curenola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Bar Tonique (official site)](https://bartonique.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Latitude 29 (official site)](https://www.latitude29nola.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Ogden Museum of Southern Art (official site)](https://ogdenmuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Cabildo (official site)](https://louisianastatemuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Backstreet Cultural Museum (official site)](https://backstreetmuseum.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [City Park (official site)](https://neworleanscitypark.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Audubon Park (official site)](https://audubonnatureinstitute.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Longue Vue House and Gardens (official site)](https://longuevue.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Whitney Plantation (official site)](https://whitneyplantation.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Oak Alley Plantation (official site)](https://www.oakalleyplantation.org/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [The Northshore across the Causeway (official site)](https://www.louisiananorthshore.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Baton Rouge (official site)](https://www.visitbatonrouge.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) (official site)](https://flymsy.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Union Passenger Terminal (official site)](https://www.amtrak.com/stations/nol?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.