You Need to Try These 11 New Orleans Experiences At Least Once in Your Life

Let the Good Times Roll

If you haven’t hit up New Orleans yet, you’re missing out on a city that’s hotter than a Louisiana summer and more colorful than a Mardi Gras parade. Founded in 1718, this 300-year-old party hasn’t stopped since.

From the iconic French Quarter’s wrought-iron balconies to the thumping beats of Frenchmen Street, here are 11 things to do in NOLA that you should experience at least once in your life.

Explore the French Quarter

The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the heart and soul of New Orleans. It’s the city’s oldest and most famous neighborhood, bordered by Canal Street, Decatur Street, Esplanade Avenue, and Rampart Street.

This area is a National Historic Landmark where you’ll see beautiful wrought-iron balconies, colorful Creole cottages, and historic buildings like the St. Louis Cathedral from the 1700s in Jackson Square.

At its center is Jackson Square, a lively park filled with street performers, artists, musicians, and fortune-tellers. Make sure to visit the French Market for local goods, and Royal Street for its art galleries, antique shops, and boutiques.

Hop on a Steamboat Cruise on the Mississippi

New Orleans is a port city, and taking a steamboat cruise is a relaxing way to experience this side of NOLA. Authentic paddle-wheel steamboats leave every day from Toulouse Street Wharf in the French Quarter.

Popular options are 2-hour daytime cruises or 2.5-hour dinner jazz cruises, complete with traditional jazz music.

Go on a Louisiana Swamp Tour

The bayous of Louisiana are some of the most hauntingly beautiful in the world.

From New Orleans, you can explore them on swamp boats, airboats, kayaks, aerial tours, and walking tours, each offering different ways to experience the wetlands.

Many tour companies provide transportation from French Quarter hotels to popular sites like the Honey Island Swamp, Manchac Swamp, Barataria Swamp, and Maurepas Swamp.

Go on a New Orleans Food Tour

New Orleans food tours typically last 3 to 4 hours and take you on a casual walk covering about a mile through the French Quarter and nearby neighborhoods. You’ll typically stop at 5 to 8 local restaurants along the way.

During the tour, you’ll taste famous New Orleans foods like gumbo, jambalaya, po-boys, muffulettas, beignets, and pralines.

Most guides will explain how different cultures—Creole, Cajun, African, and European—have shaped the NOLA’s food heritage.

Visit the National WWII Museum

While the museum isn’t specifically about New Orleans history, it’s located here partly because of the city’s important role as a major port during the war. The National WWII Museum sits at 945 Magazine Street in New Orleans’ Warehouse District. This massive 6-acre campus contains seven pavilions housing over 250,000 artifacts and 9,000 personal stories from the 1939-1945 war years.

Most visitors spend 3 to 5 hours exploring the museum’s highlights, which include the 4D movie “Beyond All Boundaries,” the USS Tang submarine experience where you can simulate operating a submarine, and the Boeing Center with its collection of restored warplanes.

Listen to Live Jazz Music while Sipping on a Sazerac

New Orleans is synonymous with jazz, and you can’t leave the city without experiencing it. Visit Preservation Hall in the French Quarter, where you can enjoy intimate 45-minute acoustic jazz sessions in a simple, historic setting. Another great option is exploring the three-block stretch of Frenchmen Street in the Marigny neighborhood which has tons of jazz clubs.

Don’t forget to order a Sazerac, New Orleans’ official cocktail and one of America’s oldest drinks.

Tour the Garden District

Unlike the lively French Quarter, the Garden District shows the elegant side of old New Orleans.

You’ll see impressive homes built in styles like Greek Revival and Italianate. Most tours also visit Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, a historic above-ground cemetery from 1833. It’s a great place to see how wealthy residents lived before the Civil War.

The Garden District is in Uptown New Orleans between St. Charles Avenue, Magazine Street, Jackson Avenue, and Louisiana Avenue.

Visit the Audubon Aquarium

The Audubon Aquarium is right on the Mississippi River at 1 Canal Street. It’s a nice way to cool off while viewing the rich sea life found in the waters near New Orleans.

Inside this massive space, you’ll find over 3,600 sea creatures from 250 different species. You can walk through an amazing 30-foot tunnel surrounded by Caribbean sea life, explore the Amazon area where birds fly freely overhead and sloths hang in the trees, and watch the playful endangered African penguins.

The star attraction is the huge Gulf of Mexico tank holding 400,000 gallons of water.

Check Out Mardi Gras World

If you can’t visit NOLA during Mardi Gras season, Mardi Gras World is the next best thing. This huge 300,000-square-foot building is both a working warehouse and a museum where Mardi Gras floats are created year-round.

Tours last about an hour to an hour and a half. You’ll see artists sculpting and painting colorful props, get to try on real Mardi Gras costumes, and learn about the 300-year history of New Orleans’ famous carnival celebration.

Go on a Ghost, Crime, or Voodoo Tour

New Orleans history has a darker side, which you can explore on the many tours offered around the city. They’ll take you to famous haunted places like the LaLaurie Mansion, share stories about pirates and mobsters, or explore Voodoo traditions at important sites such as Marie Laveau’s tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

Most walking tours start around 8 PM and last about 2 hours, covering a mile or so through the French Quarter and nearby areas after dark.

Visit the Whitney Plantation

Unlike other plantation tours in New Orleans, this 250-acre site focuses entirely on the lives of enslaved people. Tours last about 90 minutes and include restored slave cabins and the Antioch Baptist Church.

One powerful memorial is the Wall of Honor, which displays the names of over 350 enslaved people who lived on this plantation between 1819 and 1860. The Whitney Plantation is located 50 miles west of New Orleans in Wallace, Louisiana.