The Quarter, the bayou, the beat.
Ghost walks and gumbo, airboats through the swamp, a steamboat up the Mississippi and jazz on Frenchmen Street. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Seven you shouldn’t skip.
First trip or fifth, these carry a New Orleans visit. The ghost walk everyone talks about, a morning out on the bayou, and the Natchez steaming up the Mississippi with a brass band on the deck.
Premier Ghost, Voodoo and Vampire Walking Tour
A guided French Quarter walking tour mixing ghosts, voodoo, and vampires—storytelling stops at LaLaurie sites, Pharmacy Museum, and Jackson Square.
From $27 per person
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★ 5.0Crowd favouriteAdults-Only New Orleans Ghost, Crime, Voodoo, and Vampire TourFrom $376,545 reviews
★ 4.5Books out fastSteamboat Natchez Jazz CruiseFrom $435,334 reviews
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★ 4.5Worth the walkAirboat RideFrom $594,891 reviews
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The swamp starts where the road ends.
Half an hour out of the Quarter the streets give way to cypress and black water. A flat-bottomed boat, a Cajun guide who grew up on these bayous, alligators sliding off the banks and herons lifting out of the reeds. It is the half-day everyone comes back talking about.
Which swamp day is yours?
Everyone wants to see the bayou; the right boat depends on your crew. Three honest ways to do it. Pick the one that sounds like your morning, and every option behind it is already priced and reviewed.
Fast & loud
The airboat
2 to 4 hours (approx.) · from $59 · 4,891 reviews
A fan-driven flat boat that skims the shallows at speed, spins on a dime and gets you close to the alligators. Loud, breezy and a little bit thrilling. Best for anyone who wants the adrenaline version of the swamp.
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Slow & wild
The bayou cruise
5 hours (approx.) · from $70 · 5,399 reviews
A covered pontoon that idles deep into the cypress while the guide points out herons, turtles and the odd gator basking on a log. Shaded, unhurried and easy on every age. The swamp the way the locals show it off.
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History on the way
The plantation combo
7 hours 45 minutes (approx.) · from $131 · 3,303 reviews
Pair the swamp with a River Road estate: a boat ride in the morning, then Oak Alley or Whitney in the afternoon for the harder history of the sugar country. A full day out of the city, transport and all.
See the plantation days →
The music never really stops.
Bourbon Street is the postcard; Frenchmen Street is where the city actually goes. Brass spilling out of open doors, a trumpet three clubs deep, a jazz cruise pushing off from the wharf. Go with someone who knows which room is playing tonight.
Gumbo, po’boys, and a bag of beignets.
New Orleans is a Creole and Cajun town that eats all day. Powdered sugar at the Café du Monde, oysters on Decatur, a walking tour that stops six times before lunch. Come hungry and let a guide do the ordering.
Where the cocktail was born.
The Sazerac was mixed here, the Ramos gin fizz too, and a dash of Peychaud’s still turns up all over the Quarter. These tours pour the history behind the bar: the old rooms, the recipes, and why New Orleans drinks the way it does.
New Orleans keeps its history above ground.
Three centuries of French, Spanish, Creole and American New Orleans still stand in the street plan, the courtyards and the marble tombs of St. Louis No. 1. A good guide reads the architecture, tells the true stories straight, and treats the cemeteries as the resting places they are.
Pick your corner of the city.
New Orleans works block by block. The French Quarter for the balconies and the noise. The Garden District for the oaks and the mansions. Tremé for where jazz was born, Marigny for where it plays after dark.
Every kind of New Orleans day.
Twelve ways into the same city. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of day, and start there.
Three days in the Big Easy.
You can’t see all of New Orleans in one trip; you can absolutely do the right three days. Here’s the order we’d hand a friend flying into Louis Armstrong tomorrow.
Day 1
Land in the Quarter
Beignets and café au lait at the Café du Monde, a slow walk past the cathedral and the cast-iron balconies, then an afternoon food tour to learn Creole from Cajun.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The water and the wild
Out to the bayou for the morning, airboat or slow pontoon, then back for a Natchez steamboat cruise up the Mississippi as the sun drops and the band starts.
Plan day two →
Day 3
History, then Frenchmen Street
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and a Garden District stroll under the oaks in the morning, then Frenchmen Street after dark for the live music the locals actually go to.
Plan day three →
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