🏆 New Orleans, LA Travel Guide
New Orleans Vacation Guide
The French Quarter, live jazz on Frenchmen Street, and two centuries of Creole cooking, all mapped out by category so you can plan your trip around what you actually want to do.
🏆 43 Attractions & Activities
🍲 51 Restaurants
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Hotels
68 verified hotels and B&Bs across the French Quarter, CBD, and Garden District/Uptown.
Things to Do
43 verified attractions — museums, live jazz clubs, cemetery tours, and River Road plantation day trips.
Restaurants
51 verified restaurants — classic Creole institutions, James Beard-recognized chefs, and po’boy shops.
Getting to Know the Area
CBD & Warehouse District
Garden District & Uptown
Marigny & Frenchmen Street
River Road Plantations
The French Quarter is the historic core — Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, and most of the city’s oldest restaurants and hotels sit within its dozen or so blocks. The CBD and Warehouse District, just across Canal Street, hold the Convention Center, the National WWII Museum, and a growing cluster of boutique hotels. The Garden District and Uptown, connected by the St. Charles Avenue streetcar, are quieter and greener, with grand mansions and Magazine Street’s shops. The Marigny, just downriver from the Quarter, centers on Frenchmen Street’s live music clubs. And the River Road plantations sit 45-75 minutes outside the city, making for a solid half-day or full-day trip.
Planning Tips
- Budget at least 3-4 days. A day covers the French Quarter’s highlights alone; add time for a Garden District walk, a night on Frenchmen Street, and at least one River Road plantation day trip.
- Book big-name restaurants and St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 tours in advance. The classic Creole institutions and the only-official cemetery tour operator both fill up, especially around festivals.
- Consider your neighborhood carefully. The French Quarter is loud, especially near Bourbon Street; the CBD and Garden District are calmer options within easy reach of everything.
- A few well-known names have recently closed or rebranded. We verify current operating status on every listing in this guide, including a handful of hotel and restaurant name changes you may not have caught yet.
How many days should I plan for a New Orleans trip?
3-5 days covers the French Quarter, a Garden District walk, a night of live music on Frenchmen Street, and time for at least one River Road plantation day trip — add more if you want to explore City Park or take a swamp tour at a relaxed pace.
Is Bourbon Street the best place to hear live music?
Not necessarily — many locals and repeat visitors prefer Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, which has a denser cluster of dedicated jazz clubs with less of Bourbon Street’s party-crowd atmosphere.
How does NME choose which hotels, restaurants, and attractions to feature?
We verify each listing directly against its own official site and current operating status rather than relying on aggregator lists, and we exclude anything we can’t confirm is still open. Read more on our methodology page.
