Best New Orleans Tours: Every Way to Experience the City
Find Your Perfect Excursion by Interest, Vibe, or Mode of Transportation
New Orleans is a city best understood through its stories. Whether you're threading through iron-lace balconies in the French Quarter, gliding past cypress knees on an airboat, or following a chef into a neighborhood kitchen that tourists rarely find, a guided tour transforms sightseeing into something far richer.
This page brings together every type of New Orleans tour in one place, organized around the experiences that matter most to travelers: history and culture, food and drink, the supernatural, the natural world, and the city's extraordinary neighborhoods. Whether you have two hours or a full day, you'll find a way in.
Start with a French Quarter or Garden District walking tour for historical context, add a food tour to eat your way through the city, and round out the trip with a swamp tour or an after-dark ghost tour. Private options let you mix interests into a single custom outing. Most tours last under three hours, so you can fit two or more into a single day.
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New Orleans History & Culture Tours: French Quarter, Treme & Beyond
The French Quarter rewards slow exploration. Specialized guides bring 300 years of architecture, folklore, and intrigue to the streets of the oldest neighborhood in the city.
From the Treme, the oldest African American neighborhood in the country, to the complex legacy of the antebellum South, these tours offer essential context for understanding New Orleans.
Historic mansions, above-ground tombs, and streets canopied by live oaks make the Garden District one of the most photographed neighborhoods in the American South.
A wider lens on New Orleans' layered past, from its Indigenous roots and French colonial beginnings to its role in the Civil War and jazz's emergence from Congo Square.
New Orleans Food & Drink Tours: Culinary Walks, Cocktail Crawls & More
New Orleans invented the cocktail. From the Sazerac to the Ramos Gin Fizz, cocktail tours lead visitors through the bars and traditions that made the city a drinking destination.
Louisiana's craft beverage scene has grown substantially. Guided tours of local breweries and distilleries offer a taste of the city's modern food and drink culture alongside its…
The French Quarter after dark is a different city entirely. Ghost tours trace the city's most famous hauntings through gaslit streets, hidden courtyards, and centuries-old hotels.
New Orleans' above-ground "cities of the dead" are among the most striking burial grounds in the world. Tours of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, Lafayette Cemetery, and others illuminate…
Not every evening tour is a ghost tour, but the city's atmosphere after dark gives any excursion a distinct energy. Night tours cover everything from lit-up streetscapes to late-night…
Less than an hour from the French Quarter, Louisiana's swamps are home to alligators, herons, nutria, and ancient cypress forests. Swamp tours are among the most popular excursions in the region.
Even outside of Carnival season, Mardi Gras World and year-round tours explore the floats, costumes, and traditions that define the city's most celebrated festival.
Horse-drawn carriage rides through the French Quarter, sunset riverboat cruises, and private tours designed for couples make New Orleans one of the most romantic cities in the country.
From the literary haunts of Tennessee Williams to the bars that anchored New Orleans' queer community long before Stonewall, guided LGBTQ history tours trace a legacy woven through the…
For families, corporate groups, wedding parties, or travelers who want a bespoke itinerary, private tours offer maximum flexibility with expert local guides.
Looking for tours for younger visitors? These companies specialize in age-appropriate adventures that are as exciting as they are informative.
NewOrleans.com Insider Tip
Best Off-the-Beaten-Path Tours in New Orleans
Beyond the well-trodden French Quarter loop, several tours reward curious travelers with deeper, less-visited perspectives. Soul of NOLA Private Tours designs routes through neighborhoods like Treme, Bywater, and the Marigny, spotlighting local art, music venues, and community landmarks that most group tours skip. Destination Kitchen leads intimate food and cocktail experiences that venture into neighborhood restaurants and bars rarely found in guidebooks. For a nature-focused detour, the Barataria Preserve (part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park) offers boardwalk trails through cypress swamps just 25 minutes from downtown, a quieter alternative to the larger commercial swamp tour operations. LGBTQ history tours and literary walking tours also provide distinctive, story-driven angles on the city that go well beyond the standard sightseeing circuit.
Pairing a more popular tour with one of these off-the-beaten-path options gives a much fuller picture of what makes New Orleans unlike any other American city.
What are the best tours in New Orleans for first-time visitors?
First-timers tend to love French Quarter walking tours for historical orientation and swamp tours for a distinctly Louisiana experience. Ghost tours are perennially popular after dark.
Yes. New Orleans culinary tours range from neighborhood walking tours with tastings at iconic spots to behind-the-scenes kitchen experiences and cocktail-focused bar crawls.
Can I take a plantation tour as a day trip from New Orleans?
Several River Road plantations, including Whitney Plantation , are about an hour from New Orleans. Guided bus tours depart from the city and include round-trip transportation.
Yes, most tours operate throughout the year. Ghost and cemetery tours tend to fill quickly around Halloween, and Mardi Gras tours see peak demand in January and February.
French Quarter walking tours and swamp tours consistently rank as the most popular options. Walking tours are ideal for history and culture; swamp tours offer a uniquely Louisiana wildlife experience about 30–45 minutes from downtown.
What is the difference between a swamp tour and an airboat tour in New Orleans?
Both explore Louisiana's wetlands, but airboat tours cover more ground at higher speeds and are better for spotting wildlife quickly. Traditional swamp tours use flat-bottom boats for a slower, quieter experience. Both depart from operators near New Orleans.
Some self-guided neighborhood strolls and walking routes are free, and NewOrleans.com offers self-guided micro-itineraries for several neighborhoods. Most guided tours range from $20–$75 per person depending on type and duration.
Most walking tours run 1.5–2 hours. Swamp and airboat tours are typically 2 hours. Full-day culinary or plantation tours can run 4–8 hours. Private and custom tours are flexible.
Popular tours — especially ghost tours around Halloween and swamp tours on weekends — book up quickly. Booking at least a few days ahead is recommended, and further in advance during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest season.
What New Orleans tours are best for families with kids?
Kid-friendly options include swamp tours (wildlife spotting is a hit with children), carriage rides through the French Quarter, and city bus tours. NewOrleans.com has a dedicated section for kid-friendly tours with age-appropriate operators.
