Best Things to Do in New Orleans

Group these by area rather than working down the list. The Quarter, Preservation Hall and Café du Monde fill a day on foot, the streetcar, the Garden District and the WWII Museum sit upriver together, and the swamp tour and the Whitney each take half a day or more out of town. Leave room for long lunches and one more set.

1. The French Quarter. Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, Royal Street's galleries and balconies dripping with ferns. Our French Quarter guide has a walking route.
2. Live music on Frenchmen Street. A few blocks of small clubs in the Marigny with jazz, brass and funk every night, often with no cover charge. See our music guide.
3. Preservation Hall. A tiny, unrestored room in the Quarter dedicated to traditional New Orleans jazz, with short sets and no bar. Book ahead.
4. The St. Charles streetcar and the Garden District. Ride the old wooden streetcar up St. Charles Avenue under the oaks, then walk among the mansions of the Garden District. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 has been closed for repairs since 2019, apart from rare open days, so plan to look through the gates rather than walk the rows.
5. The National WWII Museum. One of the best museums in the country, with aircraft hanging in a huge pavilion and personal stories that bring the war home. Allow at least half a day.
6. Beignets and café au lait. At Café du Monde by Jackson Square, under the green-and-white awning. Expect a queue and a coating of powdered sugar.
7. A swamp tour. Boats take you through the bayous south and west of the city looking for alligators, herons and cypress trees draped with Spanish moss. Most include hotel pick-ups.
8. The Whitney Plantation. About an hour upriver, the only plantation museum in Louisiana focused entirely on the lives of the enslaved people who worked there. Harrowing and essential. Skip the plantations that still sell a romantic version of the past.
9. A second line. On most Sundays from late summer to spring, social clubs parade through the neighbourhoods behind brass bands, and anyone can join the dancing crowd behind them. WWOZ posts each Sunday's route.
10. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The city's oldest cemetery, with raised tombs and the reputed grave of Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau. Entry is only with a licensed tour.
11. City Park. One of the largest urban parks in the country, with ancient oaks, the New Orleans Museum of Art and a free sculpture garden. Take the Canal streetcar.
12. The ferry to Algiers Point. A short pedestrian ferry from the foot of Canal Street across the Mississippi to a quiet neighbourhood with the best view back to the city.

What we'd skip: Bourbon Street after dark, beyond a quick look. It's loud, sticky and full of neon daiquiri bars, and the music in the Marigny is far better.