Lonely Planet New Orleans

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• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788681513
• Print ISBN:
  9781786571793

French Quarter

Sights

Eating

Drinking & Nightlife

Entertainment

Shopping

Sports & Activities

French Quarter

Neighborhood Top Five

1 Riverfront Walking up and down the Mississippi River, watching crowds disembarking from ferries, listening to music and watching buskers along the way.

2 New Orleans Jazz Museum Catching a concert and seeing living local culture playing its Dixieland heart out.

3 Bar Tonique Slow-sipping a marvelous cocktail in a busy spot often frequented by bartenders.

4 Fifi Mahony’s Fitting yourself out for the perfect wig at this treasure trove of hairpieces.

5 Cabildo Grounding yourself in the history of Louisiana at this museum in the elegant former seat of the state’s colonial government.

Explore the French Quarter

Many visitors treat the French Quarter as a sort of adult playground, with Bourbon St serving as a neon heart of bad behavior, where the drinks are as fluorescent as the lights. Skip this side and you’ll find a compact neighborhood where historical preservation, incredible dining and great nightlife intersect like nowhere else in the USA.

Start your first day with the morning walking tour run by Friends of the Cabildo. It’s an excellent introduction to both the architecture and history of the area. After the tour, take a walk along the river and consider catching a concert sponsored by the National Park Service at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Finish the evening with dinner at either Coop’s Place or Galatoire’s, and drinks at French 75.

Next day, walk up and down Royal Street and lounge alongside the river. If you feel inclined, rent a bicycle; you can cover lots more ground that way. Go shopping or peruse some galleries, and get yourself to Preservation Hall early enough in the evening to see the show. As night well and truly falls, have dinner at Meauxbar, and then hop over for drinks at Bar Tonique or meander back to the river for a late-night bite at St Lawrence – perhaps with a wander (eyes wide shut) along crazy Bourbon St to vicariously take in the drunkenness and debauchery.

Local Life

History History se...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Welcome to New Orleans
• New Orleans’ Top 10
• What’s New
• Need to Know
• First Time New Orleans
• Top Itineraries
• If You Like…
• Month By Month
• With Kids
• Eating
• Drinking & Nightlife
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• LGBT+ New Orleans
• Neighborhoods at a Glance
• French Quarter
• Mardi Gras & Jazz Fest
• Faubourg Marigny & Bywater
• CBD & Warehouse District
• St Charles Avenue Streetcar
• Garden, Lower Garden & Central City
• Uptown & Riverbend
• Mid-City, Bayou St John & City Park
• Tremé-Lafitte
• Day Trips from New Orleans
• Sleeping
• Understand New Orleans
• New Orleans Today
• History
• People of New Orleans
• Architecture
• Music
• Environment
• Transportation
• Directory A–Z
• Glossary
• Behind the Scenes
• New Orleans Maps
• Our Writers