Things to do in New Orleans
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit New Orleans
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Mardi Gras season, cool and changeable, parades for weeks and hotels at their most expensive.
Peak spring and the best all round window, warm weather, crawfish season and major festivals.
Still good but getting hot and humid late in the month, with softer prices after Jazz Fest.
Brutal heat and humidity, daily storms, hurricane season and some summer closures, but the cheapest hotels.
Still hot with peak hurricane risk, easing later in the month.
Late October to November is the other best window, drier, fair prices and manageable crowds, with Halloween a highlight.
Festive and mild and underrated, with Christmas dressing, Reveillon dinners and a price spike around New Year.
What's on
- Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday falls between early Feb and early March
Parades roll for weeks, road closures everywhere, hotels booked months ahead.
- French Quarter Festival April
Free festival in peak spring.
- New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival late April to early May
Two weekends at the Fair Grounds, book Mid-City lodging and transport early.
- New Orleans Wine & Food Experience June
Worth timing a trip around in early summer.
- Essence Festival July
Huge and joyful, with a price spike that weekend.
- Tales of the Cocktail late July
The cocktail world's week, book bars and hotels early.
- COOLinary August
Prix fixe menus across top restaurants, the best value month to eat well.
- Bayou Boogaloo May
Neighbourhood festival on Bayou St John itself.
- Southern Decadence Labour Day weekend
among events worth timing a trip around.
- Krewe of Boo Halloween
Costumed Halloween parade, part of a major Quarter Halloween.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in New Orleans
Frenchmen Street
Three blocks of small clubs where locals hear trad jazz, brass and funk, with low covers and tip buckets.
Spotted Cat Music Club
Tiny Frenchmen club for trad jazz, a first stop on a club hop.
Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro
Frenchmen venue for a proper seated jazz set rather than standing club hopping.
Blue Nile
Frenchmen club for later, funkier sets as the night goes on.
Preservation Hall
Bare, no bar room for traditional New Orleans jazz in short, close up sets since 1961.
The National WWII Museum
Huge oral history driven museum to do properly over at least three to four hours, not ninety minutes.
New Orleans City Park
1300 acres of live oaks and lagoons, the antidote to French Quarter excess.
New Orleans Museum of Art
Solid museum inside City Park, paired with the free sculpture garden next door.
Where to stay in New Orleans
French Quarter, lower Royal and Chartres side
first trip, all-round base
Walk to almost everything, historic hotels, and the beauty of the Quarter without Bourbon Street noise at night.
Faubourg Marigny
music-first and repeat visitors
Frenchmen Street at your door, colourful cottages and a residential feel, ten minutes walk to Jackson Square.
Garden District and Uptown, St Charles corridor
quieter, grander trips and couples
Oak lined mansion streets and the streetcar as transit, trading a longer ride to the Quarter for space and quiet.
Warehouse, Arts District and CBD
museums, conventions and modern hotels
WWII Museum and Ogden nearby, larger newer hotels, and a ten to fifteen minute walk to the Quarter.
Bywater
a second trip
Creative lived in east side with Bacchanal and Crescent Park, but few hotels and more rideshares needed.
Mid-City
City Park, Jazz Fest and a local base
Residential and park side with the Fair Grounds here, but not walkable to the Quarter so plan streetcar or rideshare.
Think twice about
- Bourbon Street itself and the Canal Street tourist strip at Bourbon and Canal
Noise until dawn, drink splash crowds, overpriced everything and constant touting and street scams. Visit for one walk through, sleep on Royal or Chartres.
- New Orleans East and the I-10 and Chef Menteur motel corridors
Isolated, car dependent listings surrounded by highways and vacant lots, with nothing walkable at night. The saving is not worth the location.
- Central City and isolated blocks off St Claude and Rampart beyond the Marigny
Residential areas with block by block safety variation, little tourist infrastructure and dark quiet streets late at night.
- Unlicensed whole-home short-term rentals, anywhere
The city restricts and enforces against illegal listings, which can be cancelled, and whole home rentals are a live local grievance. Prefer hotels and licensed guesthouses.
Best restaurants in New Orleans
Commander's Palace
Defining grand Creole lunch since 1893, with weekday lunch the calmer, cheaper move.
Dakar NOLA
Senegalese tasting menu woven through Gulf seafood and Louisiana produce, unlike anywhere else.
Emeril's
Refined Louisiana tasting menu under E J Lagasse, the citys only two-star room.
Dooky Chase's Restaurant
Creole institution since 1941 and civil rights meeting place, order gumbo and fried chicken.
Pêche Seafood Grill
Wood fired Gulf seafood and whole grilled fish for the table in a buzzing group friendly room.
Willie Mae's NOLA
Wet battered, peppery, shatter crisp fried chicken with beans, best early or mid afternoon.
Turkey and the Wolf
Cult counter service lunch for a fried bologna sandwich and a collard green melt.
Brigtsen's
Modern Creole in a small warm cottage, the dinner locals recommend for Creole done their way.
Outdoor things to do in New Orleans
Beyond the Bayou
Small quiet covered boat swamp tour with ecology first and wildlife never baited or fed.
Wild Louisiana Tours
Guided small group kayak through cypress and moss Manchac Swamp at paddle height.
Kayak-iti-Yat
Guided two hour paddle on Bayou St John past City Park oaks and old bayou houses.
Louisiana Tour Company
Small group airboat in Lafitte and Bayou Barataria, fast and loud with local captains.
TPC Louisiana
Pete Dye championship course through wetlands and home of the PGA Tour Zurich Classic.
Bayou Oaks at City Park - South Course
In city Rees Jones course through century old oaks and big ponds inside City Park.
Audubon Park Golf Course
Par 62 executive course Uptown, the locals alternative for a quick cheap round.
Griffin Fishing Charters & Lodge
Well reviewed inshore charter for redfish, speckled trout, black drum and sheepshead.
Best hotels in New Orleans
Hotel Monteleone
Family owned Royal Street classic since 1886 with rooftop pool and the Carousel Bar.
Audubon Cottages
Secluded cottages around a courtyard pool on Dauphine, the Quarter without the noise.
Hotel Peter and Paul
Former church and schoolhouse boutique hotel, minutes on foot from Frenchmen Street.
The Columns
Mansion hotel whose St Charles porch is a local institution for a late afternoon drink.
Pontchartrain Hotel
Historic Garden District edge hotel with Jack Rose restaurant and Hot Tin rooftop bar.
Auberge NOLA Hostel
Social hostel in a house one block from the St Charles streetcar, with dorms and private rooms.
Maison Metier
Restored 1908 design led luxury hotel a short walk to the Quarter and the museums.
Windsor Court Hotel
Polished formal five star with spa and tea room calm in the CBD.
Is New Orleans expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $140 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $270 a person |
| Splurge | $550 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Preservation Hall: a few days ahead
- The National WWII Museum: a few days ahead
- St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: a few days ahead
- Whitney Plantation: a few days ahead
- New Orleans School of Cooking: weeks ahead
- Sazerac House: a few days ahead
- JAMNOLA: a few days ahead
- Caesars Superdome: weeks ahead
- Book hotels first for Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, Sugar Bowl and Halloween, when prices triple and rooms sell out.
- Book Dakar NOLA, Emeril's, Saint-Germain and Mosquito Supper Club as soon as windows open, then Commander's Palace, Peche and Brigtsen's.
- Book Preservation Hall reserved seats, plus St Louis Cemetery No 1 and Whitney tours.
- Check Dooky Chase's and Casamento's hours and season before building a day around them, and check the parade calendar for street closures.
Is New Orleans safe?
- The visitor core is busy, lit and heavily policed, and the everyday risk is pickpocketing, phone snatches, overcharging and street cons.
- Keep walking from the where you got your shoes bet, do not accept things put in your hand by street performers, and keep drinks in hand in crowded bars.
- Stay on lit populated streets late at night and rideshare door to door after Frenchmen or Bacchanal rather than walking dark blocks.
- Never leave anything visible in a parked car anywhere in the city, and wait out heavy downpours instead of driving through standing water.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
New Orleans travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Bourbon Street bars as a night out, with giant sugary drinks and cover bands. Walk it once, then drink a proper Sazerac or Vieux Carre elsewhere.
- The Acme Oyster House queue. Felix's across the street or Casamento's and Peche do the oysters without the hour in line.
- Generic ghost and vampire tours sold as history, and pretty plantation tours that minimise slavery. Do St Louis No 1 and Whitney properly instead.
- Cafe du Monde at peak midday and buffet jazz brunches. Go early, late or to City Park, and choose Commander's jazz brunch instead.
Getting around New Orleans: public transport and more
- Do not base a car in the Quarter, Marigny or Garden District. Walk the centre, use streetcars for St Charles, and rideshare for Treme, Bywater at night and Uptown dinners.
- The St Charles streetcar is transport and experience but is not fast or reliable to the minute, so leave a buffer for reservations.
- Airport is about 25 to 40 minutes from the centre. Taxis and rideshares are easy, and renting a car just to park it is wasteful.
- Quarter sidewalks are broken and uneven and streets pool water fast, so wear comfortable closed shoes at night.
Who New Orleans suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make New Orleans your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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