Best Time to Visit New Orleans

Short answer: March to May is the best time to visit, with warm weather and the biggest festivals, followed by October and November. Summer is hot, humid and quieter, and it overlaps with hurricane season.

The city's calendar is built around festivals, and they shape prices more than the weather does. Mardi Gras falls in February or early March, depending on the date of Easter, and the carnival season of parades builds for about two weeks before it. It's one of the great street parties on earth, and hotels fill months in advance. The French Quarter Festival in April brings free music to stages around the Quarter and the riverfront. Jazz Fest, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, runs over two long weekends in late April and early May at the Fair Grounds, with hundreds of bands and famous food stalls. The Essence Festival fills the Superdome in early July.

Spring is also crawfish season. From roughly February to June, they're boiled with corn and potatoes and tipped out onto newspaper-covered tables.

Summer, from June to September, is hot and sticky, often in the low to mid 30s °C (the 90s °F) with high humidity and heavy afternoon thunderstorms. Hotel prices fall, and restaurants run summer deals. Hurricane season runs from June to November, with the highest risk from August to early October. Most summers pass without a direct hit, but if you travel then, buy insurance that covers storms and follow local forecasts.

Autumn brings cooler, drier weather in late October and November, and a calmer city between the festivals. Halloween is a big night in the Quarter and the Marigny. Winter is mild, rarely freezing, and December brings Christmas lights in City Park, bonfires on the levees upriver on Christmas Eve, and réveillon dinners in the old Creole restaurants.

At a glance

• January to February: mild, carnival parades, Mardi Gras.
• March to May: warm, festivals, crawfish, peak prices.
• June to September: hot, humid, storms, lowest prices.
• October to December: pleasant, calmer, Halloween and Christmas.

Pack for the heat with our what to wear guide, and find the music in any month with our music guide.