The 15 best things to do in New Orleans

16.09.2024 - 22:08 / lonelyplanet.com

Sep 16, 2024 • 11 min read

The New Orleans menu is long and storied. And yes, we mean the food, but also the… everything. As the city that commands access to the Mississippi River, it’s perhaps appropriate that New Orleans rewards immersion. The city's best experiences require visitors to dunk themselves in, and while three days will give you a brief overview, you may want to spend a little extra time here. 

In New Orleans, the rainbow palette of the houses is a feast for your eyes. The music breathes pure sonic fire into your ears. The roots of the live oaks shred the sidewalk beneath your feet. The flavors of the food delight the tongue. The scent of angel’s trumpet flowers fills residential side streets. Every corner of the city treats visitors to a new sensation, and from there, a new way of seeing and appreciating the world, especially this particular world, built on Caribbean folkways, the African diaspora, French and Iberian culture, and a specifically Southern American embrace of exuberance and community.

These are the 15 best things to do in New Orleans.

New Orleans produces a plethora of art, but none of the creative output has left such a palpable imprint on the world as music. Jazz was born here, and live music is one of the Big Easy’s must-do experiences. The granddaddy of modern pop music was a synthesis of African rhythms kept alive by slaves and free people of color, European harmonies, and brass instruments introduced by marching bands.

Working musicians live by their gigs here, and the most accessible way to see them is on Frenchmen Street, in Faubourg Marigny. There are many clubs here, each within a few city blocks of one another. These include the Spotted Cat and d.b.a., where shows kick off regularly, usually around 6pm and 9pm.

And jazz isn’t the only game in town. On St Claude Avenue, you might catch a DJ spinning bounce music – The Big Easy’s native twerking dance genre – or burlesque at the Hi Ho Lounge. The Saturn Bar is the place to go for an R&B dance party.

Planning tip: There’s a lot of music on tap in New Orleans. To find it, WWOZ’s Livewire puts together an exhaustive list of local live gigs, which is painstakingly updated daily.

It may be celebrated in other cities, but there is no Mardi Gras like Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. As New Orleans's number-one attraction, this is a party where the city's penchant for hedonism is cranked up to the highest possible setting, then unleashed on her citizens in a riot of intensely creative costuming and joyful parades.

The holiday has as many ways of being enjoyed as there are New Orleanians – and Fat Tuesday itself is the culmination of roughly two and a half weeks of gradually intensifying partying otherwise known as Carnival season.

Plann