The 28 Best Things to Do in New Orleans
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Part of New Orleans’ immediate appeal is just sauntering around its neighborhoods and letting the historic aesthetics of the French Quarter or Garden District wash over you. When you’ve taken in the ambiance, though, it’s time to scratch beneath the surface of its decorative wrought iron balconies and ebullient, streetside brass bands. World class museums await in the form of the National World War II Museum and New Orleans Museum of Art, as well as more indigenous insights at Mardi Gras World or the Backstreet Cultural Museum. Must-see music venues—with a heavy skew to traditional jazz—abound, with food and drink, the other life bloods of The Crescent City, also well represented. Green spaces—both human made and more wild just outside the city limits—invite you to sit or explore in some welcome shade. You’ll find here an accessible city, with many venues within walking distance of one another. Grab a cold drink for the stroll (it’s encouraged), and open yourself up to sights and experiences that you really can’t find anywhere else.
Read our complete New Orleans travel guide here, which includes:
How we choose the best things to do in New Orleans
Every review on this list has been written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has visited that activity. When choosing things to do, our editors consider landmarks and experiences that offer an insider’s view of a destination, keeping authenticity, location, service, and sustainability credentials top of mind.
Christian HoranactivityVue Orleans
Previously a rotating nightclub known as Top of the Mart, the upper levels of what is the new Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans have been transformed into a major new city attraction–Vue Orleans Observatory, “a 360-degree observation deck and interactive experience" on floors 33 and 34. Having been built on a swamp, New Orleans is mostly low-rise, and so this observation deck, though not that high in relative terms, still delivers memorable views of the surrounding city. Upon entry, follow a bevy of interactive maps to the elevator, where further video traces the history of New Orleans. Narrated by local singing legend Irma Thomas and rendered in beautiful rotoscope animation, you’re surrounded on three sides by ever-shifting scenery while climbing to the first observation deck. There’s one more level to explore, where you can stroll outside around the perimeter of the tower, and take in the views—the vista looking straight up Poydras Street is particularly dramatic.
Linda XiaoactivityCrescent Park
Until 2014, the banks of the Mississippi River bordering the city's downtown Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods were essentially unwalkable. The city invested in a large renovation program that's transformed unsightly, post-industrial wasteland into a lovely riverside park. Crescent Park is a mile-and-a-half long and feels very much like a local spot; you're unlikely to find Mardi Gras-beaded tourists here. Grab a bottle of wine and a cheese plate from nearby Bacchanal Wines, and find yourself a grassy riverside spot for an afternoon picnic.
Linda XiaoactivityStudio Be
This studio—in a huge warehouse space in the Bywater neighborhood—showcases the work of local artist Brandan Odums (aka BMike). He specializes in large-scale murals and paintings illustrating scenes from black culture in the city, black leaders and icons; the exhibits show off the whole range of Odum’s talent, with mixed media pieces including sculpture and video. The real stars of the show—and the works for which he is most famous—are the floor-to-ceiling portraits.
Courtesy BK Historic House and GardensactivityBK Historic House and Gardens
New Orleans’ famed French Quarter is abundant with gorgeous 19th-century architecture, but this Greek Revival townhouse-turned-museum is one of the few that you can explore. The house is named after two of its most prominent owners—the Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and the author Frances Parkinson Keyes (the author of Joy Street and The Explorer, and who sponsored the purchase and restoration of the property). Beyond the Palladian façade with its raised center hall are rooms that have been preserved to show off the lifestyles of both the wealthy Beauregard family, and there is also a chance to see Keyes’ study. There are also historic Creole cottage features, providing a glimpse into the affluent, pre-Civil War life of the property’s inhabitants, as well as the people that they enslaved, and who would have labored there at the time. It’s a great, potted 200-year history of the Crescent City in one place.
wanderluster/GettyactivityWild Louisiana Kayak Tour
When the muggy summer weather (or a gator popping up in the Bayou St. John neighborhood) isn’t reminding you, it’s sometimes easy to forget that New Orleans is essentially built on swampland. You don’t need to stray far from downtown for a reminder. Wild Louisiana can pick you up in the French Quarter and drive you to their launch spot in the wild bayou, less than 30 minutes away. Here, their expert guides will lead a casual kayaking expedition around the Maurepas swamps (formally The Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area). The biggest alligators in the swamp can reach 10 feet in length, and although I didn’t see any that size, it was amazing to get up close to babies and slightly smaller gators. They’re docile and any trepidation evaporates quickly as the beauty and tranquility of the environment eases you into a relaxed state of mind.
GettyactivityNew Orleans Museum of Art
A must-see on most visitors’ New Orleans itineraries, and deservedly so. The building itself, set back in City Park, is imposing and grand with its alabaster walls and Greco-Roman columns. There's also a beautiful five-acre sculpture garden, with artwork beneath magnolias and Spanish moss-laden live oaks. Inside, the collection is equally impressive, with French and American art and traveling exhibits that feature everything from fashion to digital media. It remains one the South’s most impressive fine art collections.
Courtesy New Orleans Storyville MuseumactivityNew Orleans Storyville Museum
There are many angles that you can take into the exploration of New Orleans’ past—social, architectural, culinary—but this museum, opened in 2024, looks through a lens of vice. In the 19th and early 20th century, the infamous Storyville neighborhood (adjacent to the modern day French Quarter) flourished as a thriving red light district. The approach is far from lurid, and what owner (and long-time French Quarter resident) Claus Sadlier has assembled is a place that explores the city’s social, cultural and even musical history through a once-controversial, but nevertheless important part of its everyday life. Whether you’re interested in the origins of jazz, or the personal stories of the people that worked there at the time, it’s a new and refreshing addition to the historical interpretation of the Crescent City.
Linda XiaoactivityCity Park
Almost all of New Orleans life is contained within this park—museums, golf courses, cafes and high-end restaurants, a stadium, waterways, and all that green space. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the accompanying sculpture garden are definite highlights, as is the Couterie Forest with its eight distinct ecosystems (and the city’s highest point, Laborde Mountain). Children will love the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park with its retro fairground rides—as well as the Louisiana Children's Museum—while adults can work up an appetite walking the great lawns before for dinner at the highly respected Ralph’s on the Park.
Jacqueline MarqueactivityMusic Box Village
This venue, in the far reaches of the residential Bywater neighborhood, is an aesthetic delight. It looks something like a post-apocalyptic wooden fortress, impenetrable except to those in the know (the public entrance is set in the back). Inside is part acoustic playground, part rural music venue, part museum. There are several small "houses"—built with wood and metal and plastic, in different styles—and each has its own musical "instruments," be it percussion or wind or some more elaborate electronic devices hooked into windows and floors. It’s built for you to run around, explore, and make lots of noise. The shows here are one-of-a-kind—nything from rock to opera, the common thread being that artists are encouraged to make use of the unique sounds and setup available to them. Performances are true one-offs, with even the most polished songs being deconstructed and put together again using the wooden blocks or bells available. The venue encourages a particular kind of collaboration and invention, and most artists rise to the challenge.
- Camerique/ClassicStock/Gettyactivity
Steamboat Natchez
The Steamboat Natchez is a well-loved and well-established tour with two daily harbor cruises, as well as dinner and Sunday brunch cruises. Though they may differ slightly, all of the cruises take in the sights and history of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. With the calliope organ playing as the boat docks, this is a rare chance to learn a lot in a short period of time. Buy tickets at the walk-up booth along the river (reservations are recommended during high season).
Elsa HahneactivityWhitney Plantation
The museum has over a dozen historical structures that they have preserved, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structures include the Antioch Baptist church, which was first erected in nearby Paulina, and reassembled on the plantation grounds, as well as the basic accommodations and work stations such as a blacksmith’s cabin. The main permanent exhibits are The History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which relates how the slave trade began and its logistics, and Slavery in Louisiana, a more localized spotlight on the history of the Code Noir, and accounts of resistance and rebellion. Sculptures of the slaves and their children, and details of some of the lives lead there help to humanize the experience. Visitors can opt for the museum’s award-winning audio self-tour, or join a guided tour with trained interpreters.
GettyactivityLouis Armstrong Park
There aren’t a ton of green spaces in downtown New Orleans, so Louis Armstrong Park, just outside the French Quarter, is a welcome option. Given its proximity to the city’s culture, the park has also become a hub for festivals and seasonal events. It’s a well-designed, landscaped spot that packs a lot into 32 acres. Don't miss Congo Square, which began as an open space for slaves and free people of color to celebrate their African heritage with music and drumming circles—the precursor to the development of jazz.
Erika Goldring/GettyactivityBackstreet Cultural Museum
The Treme neighborhood is one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the country, and inside what looks like an otherwise residential home is the new location for the Backstreet Cultural Museum, which houses one of the most comprehensive archives of the traditions and community movements that sprung from these streets. The most colorful aspect of the museum is its collection of elaborately sequined and beaded Mardi Gras masks and costumes, which have African and Native American influences. The collection also has information and artifacts relating to jazz funerals, second lines, and social aid and pleasure clubs. The exhibits are mainly permanent, although it’s a constantly growing archive of costumes, artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, and films. The museum also hosts special events (including live music performances by local musicians and parties) throughout the year.
GettybarThe Spotted Cat Music Club
If Frenchmen Street is home to the city’s best jazz, the Spotted Cat is its epicenter—a small, kind of rundown bar that comes alive each night as old-school jazz plays on. Expect to hear brassy quartets and quintets; clarinet solos and big voices; and swing when the Cotton Mouth Kings come by. Cram in and stay for more than one set; a dance floor will open up for the local swing crew to show off its moves. This stretch of the Marigny neighborhood, just as you leave the French Quarter, is changing, but there are still a few outposts that hold tight to their roots like this one does. It’s going to be packed when you arrive, especially on Friday and Saturday nights; weekdays are a good chance to get closer to the band without too much crowding. It's free to enter, but cash-only at the full bar, which has a one-drink minimum.
GettyactivityThe National WWII Museum
The National WWII Museum is a world-class history museum—a sprawling complex of modern buildings in the Warehouse District that receives thousands of visitors every day who want to hear "the story of the war that changed the world." Doing so is no easy task, but through large narrative exhibits that include detailed, personal accounts from eyewitnesses, the museum manages to do just that. Every conceivable medium is used: film, immersive exhibits, large-scale reconstructions, and first-person oral histories among them. Expect to walk—a lot—given how spread out exhibits are, but the museum is sensitive to the relatively mature age of its visitors and rest stops and benches are plentiful. A short visit isn't ideal given the scale of the topic at hand, but if you’re really pushed, you could tailor your visit to just see a specific interest, or go straight for the movie presentation.
GettyactivitySaenger Theatre
You can still feel the glamour that must have accompanied the opening of Saenger Theatre in 1927. Although the capacity has been cut from 4,000 to 2,600, the grand venue is still one of the biggest theaters in town, with a performance hall modeled on an Italian baroque courtyard and overhead lighting that resembles a starry constellation. The space hosts big events that still need a more intimate setting than a sports arena: touring Broadway shows, big-name comedians, and the occasional concert.
Linda XiaoactivitySydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden
This five-acre sculpture garden is a park within City Park, and acts as an open-air annex to the wonderful New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). 90 sculptures—mostly modern and abstract—are set among magnolias and live oaks, framed by bridges and reflecting pools, with world-renowned artists Henry Moore, Antoine Bourdelle, and Ossip Zadkine represented. The lake-set Virlane Tower by Kenneth Snelson is a favorite, as is the familiar Love, Red Blue sign by Robert Indiana, but it’s best to come without a map. Surprise and delight are over every bridge.
- Barry Winiker/Gettyactivity
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center, housed in a large redbrick building that stands out in the relatively muted Central Business District, is one of the city’s most prestigious spaces for the full gamut of contemporary arts, including painting, film, theater, and music. Exhibits, which rotate every four to eight weeks, can include any visual art form, from photography to sculpture and painting. The featured works are well-curated—sometimes around themes, sometimes around individual contemporary artists. Pieces are often installed in a creative way that makes use of the interior architecture.
Courtesy Mardi Gras WorldactivityMardi Gras World
An anonymous warehouse by the Port of New Orleans is home to a huge working studio, and inside, it looks like something akin to a movie production. It’s not somewhere you’d pass by ordinarily, but most tour companies and hotels will promote it. It’s not so much a collection as it is a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the country's biggest free party–Mardi Gras. The huge floats take months to build and decorate, and this is where a large part of that happens. Painters and sculptures are actually working on pieces as you walk through, and it feels like being let in on a secret. The space houses whatever is being built that year, so it’s luck of the draw what you see—although just nearly all the floats are impressive in their scale and level of detail.
GettyactivityCajun Encounters Tour Company
Cajun Encounters takes you 45 minutes from French Quarter beignets and Bourbon Street, but the bayou feels a world away. Your tour “captain”—a total pro who knows caimans from alligators—takes you out on a flat-bottomed boat for two hours in search of gators in the wild. You might even get to feed them. (Don’t worry, everyone from the tour makes it back.) Conservation plays a part of the conversation, as the guide offers a funny-serious take on the swamp, including how the environment was affected by Hurricane Katrina and how it continues to evolve.
Courtesy Ogden Museum of Southern ArtactivityOgden Museum of Southern Art
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is Smithsonian-affiliated and, as its name suggests, celebrates the culture and aesthetic of Southern artists. The permanent collection showcases more than 4,000 pieces from 15 states; in fact, with works dating back to 1733, the institution boasts the most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world. Exhibits feature paintings, photography, sculpture, and handicrafts, and place historical works alongside contemporary artists working in the South.
Courtesy Sazerac HouseactivitySazerac House
You may think that a museum dedicated to just one cocktail is excessive and couldn’t be done with enough depth to keep things interesting. To that, New Orleans says: hold my Sazerac. Opened in October 2019, The Sazerac House is a multi-floor, multi-media, interactive dive into the intoxicating world of a whiskey brand. In a beautifully renovated building on the corner of Magazine and Canal, it manages to house a museum, a bar, and a distillery, all in one. Visitors are guided to the third floor to begin their tour. The floor traces the cultural influence of booze in New Orleans. Spoiler alert: it figures heavily in the city’s past. Exhibits are sleek, technologically impressive, and in some cases, interactive, detailing the start of cocktail culture in the Crescent City and the evolution of the Sazerac. The second floor delves into the brand, looking at the production of the spirit, including a hands-on look at ingredients, and a chance to sample the wares if you’re old enough. The ground floor exposes the inner workings of the on-site distillery, and the parts blend to form a cohesive whole, like a well-made cocktail.
- Jeff Greenberg/Gettyactivity
Southern Food & Beverage Museum
Sometimes it feels like most, if not all, of the festivities in and around New Orleans are simply vehicles for making and consuming local dishes and cocktails. It makes sense, then, that this museum opened in 2014 to celebrate the food and drinks that are so beloved in this region. This large, open-plan warehouse has a bohemian ambience. It’s filled with antique memorabilia and packs in an impressive number of ingredients, with exhibits representing all of the southern states, not just Louisiana. The museum is very active socially, and in any given week there’s likely to be a few live events, from demonstrations and lectures to nights where you can sample specific foods or cocktails. Local and regional chefs and bartenders are invited to interpret their skills, and there’s a cute outdoor space, the Gumbo Garden. There’s also a demonstration kitchen that hosts regular cookery demos and classes.
Linda XiaoactivityPreservation Hall
Come the early evening, or Sunday afternoon, people start to line up outside the crumbling exterior of a building on St. Peters Street in the historic French Quarter. Through the iron gate lies one of the world’s most respected music venues and the spiritual home of New Orleans jazz, Preservation Hall. It’s not much to look at—just a small, square room with some seating and a small stage area—but a little local magic happens four or five times a day. The house band is, unsurprisingly, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. They're dedicated to preserving the traditions of New Orleans jazz as it was in its heyday a hundred years ago, and they play four or five white-hot, hour-long sets each night to the 100 or so people who pack the benches. You're guaranteed an amazing show no matter what time you come, and there’s always that chance that famous musicians will drop by unannounced, especially when large music festivals (such as Jazz Fest in the spring) are in town.
Hermann-Grima House: Urban Enslavement TouractivityHermann-Grima House
This grand downtown home was originally built in 1831, and passing through its Federalist-style façade you’ll find yourself transported back some two hundred years. Thanks to the attentive, expert restoration and preservation efforts, much of its features are unchanged from those days. The entire house is essentially ‘the exhibit’. You can find original oil portraits of the various family members, and everything from period kitchens and bedrooms to Felix Grima’s original book collection. The slave quarters especially highlight the impact that people of African descent had on the city, with many of their traditions—musical, culinary, and otherwise—surviving in some form to this day. Local history buffs and visitors who wish to scratch beneath the surface of the city’s past will find a lot to love here. Information is presented in an accessible way, and even younger children will be engaged by seeing how kids their age entertained themselves two centuries ago.
Courtesy Louisiana Children's MuseumactivityLouisiana Children's Museum
After three decades in downtown New Orleans, the LCM opened its doors in its new, much larger City Park location in 2019. The Museum has been thoughtfully designed to be a learning resource for families and children of all ages, with resources that focus on social and cultural learning. It’s very hands-on as you might expect, with a comprehensive program of exhibits, installations and activities. It’s a fun way to stimulate learning in all manner of subjects, from literacy to health and wellbeing, and from arts and local culture to science and environmental education. The seasonal events calendar is jam packed with special presentations. These include live performances as part of the Children's Museum's Play Soirée, the enjoyably messy Mud Fest where building and burrowing are encouraged, or parent and toddler-focused groups such as Kindergarten Kickoff, which has caregivers and experienced staff talk about their experiences to smooth the transition from home to kindergarten for everyone involved.
Audubon Aquarium, New OrleansactivityAudubon Aquarium of the Americas
On a typically hot and humid New Orleans day, there aren’t many places more pleasant than the cool, dark rooms of the aquarium. Formerly the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, in 2023 this facility underwent a $41 million renovation that also relocated the Audubon Nature Institute’s Insectarium, and now both attractions are contained under one roof. The insectarium has obviously been completely redesigned, adding a new butterfly garden, with the aquarium itself presenting a new walkthrough exhibit of wading birds and a reconfigured Gulf of Mexico exhibit that can be viewed from above as well as from eye level. You could spend almost any amount of time just meditating as the jellyfish float by, or watching the penguins go about their daily routines. The butterfly garden is also a lovely spot to linger and experience the whimsy of these colorful creatures. If anything, it’s a challenge to leave once immersed in the calm and aquatic tranquility.
GettyactivityHeli Co. New Orleans: City Tour
One thing about the city of New Orleans is that it’s very flat, and relatively low rise for a major American conurbation. Chances for panoramic views are limited, and visitors are limited to taking in the cityscape from rooftop bars or peaking through the concrete blocks of high-rise parking lots or hotel rooms. The only real solution is to take to the skies. Assuming you don’t have access to a private jet, Heli Co New Orleans offer an accessible option with their helicopter tours that come replete with knowledgeable pilot-guides, at the same time providing a welcomingly novel way to see the Crescent City. The new visual perspective that the flight offers is so refreshing, and the photo opportunities presented are a rare thing unto themselves. Pilots are happy to give a tour that would suit first timers, pointing out the more renowned sights, but even long-time residents would surely be impressed by views that aren’t otherwise possible.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
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