The Best Things to Do in New Orleans

The best things to do in New Orleans include hearing live music, eating your way through Creole and Cajun classics, and exploring historic neighborhoods on foot or by streetcar. Beyond the French Quarter, visitors take swamp tours in the bayous outside the city, cruise the Mississippi River aboard a steamboat, browse the shops along Magazine Street, and plan trips around festivals like French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

There is much more to New Orleans than Bourbon Street. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is one of the city's most popular stretches for live music, Magazine Street offers miles of local boutiques and cafés, and Bayou St. John draws kayakers and picnickers. For culture, visit the Backstreet Cultural Museum in Tremé or the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in the Warehouse District.

Many of the best things to do in New Orleans are free. Watch street performers in Jackson Square, walk the Moonwalk along the Mississippi River, admire the historic homes of the Garden District, and explore the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in City Park. On many Sundays, you can follow a second line parade hosted by one of the city's Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs.

You can hear live jazz in New Orleans every night of the week. Preservation Hall in the French Quarter presents traditional New Orleans jazz in an intimate setting, while Frenchmen Street clubs like The Spotted Cat Music Club and Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro book local musicians most nights. For a free option, listen for brass bands and street performers around Jackson Square and Royal Street.

New Orleans has plenty for families. Audubon Zoo and Audubon Aquarium are longtime favorites, and City Park is home to the Louisiana Children's Museum, Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, and Storyland. Kids also love riding the streetcar, watching street performers in the French Quarter, and catching throws at family-friendly Mardi Gras parades along St. Charles Avenue.

Popular tours in New Orleans include swamp tours in the wetlands outside the city, walking tours of the French Quarter and Garden District, ghost and history tours after dark, and food tours that cover everything from po-boys to pralines. To visit St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, one of the city's oldest cemeteries, you'll need to book an authorized guided tour.