Here is my list of 20 top things to do in New Orleans! I first want to say that I love this city and that it is my second favourite city in the US after New York.
After the madness of Mardi Gras, I discovered NOLA’s real face: the one without the parties, the parades and the costumes. I liked it so much that I made a list of the 20 essential things to do in New Orleans.
You can combine activities and visits to make a day tour as suggested below. And bonus, some places have been recommended to us by a local with great taste! Thank you again, Susan!
Let’s start!
Things to do in New Orleans on DAY 1: the French Quarter
1. Visit the French Quarter, the first place that comes to mind when thinking about NOLA!
Its charms produce feelings of romance and nostalgia with its beautiful architecture, historical monuments and landmarks: Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, Saint Louis Cathedral, the French Market (so lovely) and so on. A must-visit!
2. Order a muffaletta for lunch from the Central Grocery and Deli (923 Decatur St). This is where the whole M (for Muffaletta) story began.
Sicilian immigrants arriving in mass to New Orleans created the muffaletta sandwich.
They used to stop at the Central Grocery to buy all the ingredients for the sandwich: cold meats, olive salad and cheese.
The owner of the Deli then had the idea to offer ready-made sandwiches. The round sesame bread is stuffed with salami, ham, mortadella, olive salad and different cheeses.
Half a sandwich costs around 10 USD. It was more than enough to fill me for the rest of the day!
3. Watch steamboats on the Mississippi: do not forget to watch the steamboats touring the Mississippi. The promenade is not far from Café du Monde.
Those boats remind me of the Tom Sawyer cartoons I watched as a kid. Steamboat tours are also available. I have no recommendation because we did not do one.
Things to do in New Orleans on Day 1 – afternoon breaks: Beignets and Bloody mary
4. Drink coffee and eat beignets at Café du Monde (800 Decatur St): for your afternoon break, sit at Café du Monde, a NOLA institution.
Here you can order beignets (square French doughnuts covered with powdered sugar) with chicory-scented café au lait (milk coffee).
The place is great for people-watching too. Avoid long queues and come before 9 am or late in the evening – as we did!
The Café is open 24 hours a day, all year long, so you will have loads of opportunities to eat beignets.
5. Sip a bloody mary from the Golden Lantern (1239 Royal St). At sundown, stop at this bar for the best bloody mary in town! Their delicious cocktail comes with pickled green beans and chili.
I can’t get enough of that taste and could drink it at any time of the day (no, I am not an alcoholic!), so I squeezed in a stop every time I was nearby!
DAY 2: Cycling around New Orleans & Po boy for lunch
6. NOLA is much more than just the French Quarter, don’t miss out by not exploring the surroundings. Cycling is the best way for visiting around. Some friends lent us their bikes, but I am sure it is possible to rent one in the city.
Our first trip was towards Garden District. We started on Saint Charles Avenue and saw NOLA’s famous streetcars, then changed to Prytania Street, cycled under the shadows of the big trees, admiring old buildings on the way.
We also passed Magazine Street, famous for its shops and boutiques.
7. We stopped at the Lafayette Cemetery (1416-1498 Washington Ave), which you can visit for free.
It is not a big cemetery, but it was interesting to read some of the tombstones. They gave a glimpse of the past, people’s stories and how they died.
You can see here above-the-ground tombs, a popular style in New Orleans.
Oyster po boy from Dolomise’s Po Boy
8. For lunch, we headed to Dolomise’s Po Boy (5240 Annunciation St). Here is an off-beaten tracks spot. This place offers a wide selection of Po Boys, typical sandwiches from Louisiana.
It is a baguette generally filled with meat, breaded fish or seafood, lettuce, mayo and ketchup.
I chose the oyster one (I love oysters, whenever I can, I order them, as you might remember from my Espai Kru post). Yummy, tasty, and delicious.
Alas, I could not enjoy it with a beer. I forgot my ID, so the barman did not let me go close to any type of alcohol. I am in the US.
Day 2 afternoon: Saint Louis’ Park and Frenchmen Street
9. After lunch, we had enough time left to come back to the city. So we decided to have a snooze at Saint Louis’ Park, at the edge of the French Quarter.
It is a pretty cool park built to honour Louis Armstrong. It has a famous arch entrance, sites like Congo Square, where slaves met in the 1800s, (funky) sculptures, duck ponds and lots of spaces for relaxing.
We napped under the sun on the grass.
10. In the evening, we went out for drinks and dancing on Frenchmen street, where you can find many bars. We chose the Blue Nile.
This venue is known as the original music club that gave birth to the music culture on Frenchmen Street. They had a concert on, and the dancing was good.
When we came out, an energetic brass band played in the street.
We discovered the Frenchman Art Market with handicrafts from local and regional artists, on our way home. It is a pretty cool market to explore!
DAY 3: Swamp tour and local food
11. Day 3 started with a swamp tour. Swamps are another thing Louisiana is famous for, with its many forested wetlands.
We chose Cajun Pride Swamp Tours by boat. They owned the swamp, so we had it all for ourselves. The tour lasted 4 hours, and we paid 12 USD.
We roamed the swamp searching for alligators, but did not find wild animals. Guess what happened at the end of the tour?Surprise!
The captain took live snakes out of a basket for us to play with. Not for me. Thank you, but I do not like snakes. He also had a baby gator I could hold carefully. Despite the fact that we could not see any wild animals, the tour was still enjoyable.
12. We stopped at Lil Dizzy’s café (1500 Esplanade Ave) for lunch. We stumbled upon this jewel and decided to try it. The café is not fancy, but it is a great local eatery. And we love local places!
The staff is amicable. The café served a buffet for 15 USD with local food: gumbo, jambalaya, and fried chicken (OMG!!! This was the BEST fried chicken I have ever had).
Surprisingly, they also had a fantastic bread and butter pudding dessert. I did not expect to have some in New Orleans as it is a dessert I tasted for the first time in Dublin.
Day 3 afternoon: Treme and cycling to City Park
13. We cycled around our neighbourhood, Treme, on our way to City Park (activity nbr 14). That was an opportunity to spot shotgun houses, typical narrow houses in African American communities in NOLA and other places in the south of the US.
They generally consist of a gabled front porch and two or more rooms laid out in a straight line.
14. After lunch, cycle to City Park – you might need more time here as there are many places to see: the Botanical Gardens, the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, the Train Garden etc.
We went for half a day around Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. It contains more than 60 sculptures (valued at $25 million). I love the art exposed here. I can relate to it.
DAY 4: Plantation visit
15. Visit a plantation: a trip to New Orleans will not be complete without a plantation visit. A few of them are opened to visitors. Unfortunately, none of them is reachable by public transportation. Believe me I looked into that option.
Without a car, the only option is a tour. For the Oak Alley and Laura plantations with Tours by Isabelle, I paid 96 USD. The two plantations are completely different from each other.
Laura Plantation
Laura Plantation is a creole plantation. It does not have the grandeur of Oak Alley, but it is still a charming building.
The tour guide (not our driver) almost made me cry with her dramatic and detailed account of slavery as it happened on the plantation.
They kept original slaves’ price lists with their names, ages, talents, and skills. It is hard to believe that human beings were treated like cattle.
Oak Alley plantation
In Oak Alley plantation, guides dressed up in period costumes welcomed us. The plantation is more luxurious, and the view of the actual oak alley is impressive.
They filmed several movies, music videos and television episodes here. That would include Beyonce’s Deja Vu music video and scenes from “Interview with the Vampire” with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
On the way back to the city, we passed in front of the Evergreen plantation (post edit 2023: closed for tours), where scenes of Django Unchained were filmed.
Oak alley at the Oak Alley plantation
End of the trip with an unforgettable jazz evening!
16. Dine at the Palm Court Jazz Café (1204 Decatur St): New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, so in New Orleans you cannot avoid a soirée at a jazz club.
Our very kind and NOLA knowledgeable “guide” invited us to enjoy some great traditional jazz and tasty Cajun food in this dinner club situated in the French Quarter for our last night in the city.
The Palm Court Jazz Café is housed in a beautifully restored 19th-century building. Its decoration is elegant, the food tasty, and the service warm and impeccable.
We saw a lively and energetic band, an equally lovely and enthusiastic owner, Nina Buck, who kept inviting guests to dance while moving on the dance floor herself from her 80s!
Such enthusiasm and passion are unforgettable!
Additional suggestions for things to do in New Orleans
Here are places and things I would have loved to do but could not because of limited time:
17. Back Street museum, as mentioned in my post “Living Mardi Gras in New Orleans”
18. Hansen’s sno-bliz: this is a snowball stand/shop. I saw pics. Honestly, they look yummy.
19. The Voodoo Spiritual Temple because Voodoo is another big part of the culture in NOLA.
20. The National WWII Museum: 945 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130, United States
Official New Orleans tourism website: https://www.neworleans.com/