Swamp boat at nine, gumbo at two, ghosts at eight.
Which swamp boat gets you close to the gators, what a French Quarter food walk costs, whether the cemetery tour or the voodoo walk earns your evening. Reviews of the tours you can book in and around New Orleans.
MorningNew Orleans Swamp and Bayou Boat Tour with TransportationInto the cypress swamp on a flat-bottomed boat, with hotel pickup.
AfternoonNew Orleans Food Walking Tour of the French Quarter with Small-Group OptionA small-group tasting walk through the Quarter, lunch in instalments.
After darkNew Orleans Premier Ghost, Voodoo and Vampire Walking TourThe haunted addresses of the Vieux Carré, on foot once the sun goes down.
Quarter, Garden District or cemetery: pick the New Orleans walk that fits your day.
The old city is compact, flat and best taken at walking pace. Four kinds of walk, what each costs to join, and which part of town it covers.
The classic first walkFrench Quarter Historical Sights and Stories Walking Tour
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,724 reviews · from $35
French Quarter historyJackson Square, the Cabildo, iron balconies and the stories behind them.
Garden DistrictGreek Revival mansions under live oaks, a streetcar ride uptown.
Cemetery walksAbove-ground tombs, and the one said to hold Marie Laveau.
TreméCongo Square and one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in the country.
All 155 New Orleans walking tours →
The New Orleans tours most visitors book.
All the New Orleans reviews →Steamboats, swamp boats and ghost walks: the days out the most travelers sign up for, and what earns each one its place.
1
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
Board at Toulouse Street in the French Quarter for an evening on a traditional paddlewheel riverboat. Explore the ship, hear its calliope, and cruise the Mississippi with live jazz from the Dukes of Dixieland or another scheduled New Orleans jazz act. Add a Southern-style buffet dinner, with Creole dishes and vegetarian choices available.
Prices start at $58
Read our review →
2
Adults-Only New Orleans Ghost, Crime, Voodoo, and Vampire Tour
from $37
3
New Orleans Airboat Ride
from $59
4
Evening Steamboat Jazz Cruise + Optional Dinner
from $58
5
Daytime Steamboat Jazz Cruise + Optional Lunch
from $43
6
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Official Walking Tour
from $25
7
Swamp Boat Ride and Oak Alley Plantation Tour from New Orleans
from $131
8
New Orleans Sightseeing City Tour
from $40
9
New Orleans Demonstration Cooking Class with Meal
from $43
New Orleans after dark: ghosts, voodoo and the cities of the dead.
The Quarter changes after sunset. Guides lead small groups past the LaLaurie Mansion, through Marie Laveau’s story and along the cemetery walls, and the adults-only walks save the grisliest history for last.
3Half an hour past the city limits, the Louisiana swamp takes over.
Airboats skim the open marsh at speed; flat-bottomed boats nose quietly under cypress and Spanish moss, where alligators sun on the banks in the warm months. Many swamp tours include hotel pickup, and the long days pair the boat with a River Road plantation.
Brass, roux and rye: three things New Orleans gave everyone else.
Plenty of cities have good bars and restaurants. Very few invented a music, a cuisine and a shelf of cocktails of their own.
Jazz
Jazz took shape here around the turn of the twentieth century, out of brass bands, church halls and the dance floors of the old city. You still hear it most nights on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, and the Steamboat Natchez carries a live jazz band and a steam calliope on its river cruises.
- 1New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 7,533 reviews
- 2Evening Steamboat Jazz Cruise + Optional Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 4,548 reviews
- 3Daytime Steamboat Jazz Cruise + Optional Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 4,164 reviews
The Food
Gumbo starts with a dark roux, red beans and rice still turn up on Mondays, and a shrimp po-boy only works on the local French bread. A food walk packs a dozen of these into one afternoon in the Quarter and explains where each came from.
- 1New Orleans Food Walking Tour of the French Quarter with Small-Group Option★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,118 reviews
- 2New Orleans Food and History Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,544 reviews
- 3New Orleans French Quarter Food Tour: Cajun, Creole and Culture★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,246 reviews
The Cocktails
The Sazerac, rye with Peychaud’s bitters and an absinthe rinse, is the city’s official cocktail. The Ramos gin fizz and the Vieux Carré were both first mixed here, and the go-cup means you can carry the last one out onto the street.
- 1New Orleans Cocktail and Food History Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 819 reviews
- 2New Orleans Original Craft Cocktail Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 675 reviews
- 3New Orleans Cocktail History Walking Tour in the French Quarter★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 604 reviews
New Orleans in summer: walk early, then get under a roof.
Summer here means heavy, wet heat by late morning and a thunderstorm most afternoons, and hurricane season runs from June through November. Take the early slots for walking and swamp tours, then spend the middle of the day indoors: the National WWII Museum, a cooking class, a cocktail tour through the old bars.
Four New Orleans bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this city can be decided over beignets the same morning. These four run on licensed guides, river timetables and coach pickups that are fixed before you land.
- 01St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Official Walking TourSince 2015 the cemetery admits visitors only with a licensed guide. No tour, no way through the gate.
- 02New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionThe Natchez sails to a fixed timetable from the Toulouse Street wharf and does not wait for latecomers.
- 03Oak Alley Plantation Tour with Transportation from New OrleansOak Alley is about an hour upriver, and the coach collects from city hotels at a set morning time.
- 04Small-Group Manchac Swamp Kayak TourSmall-group paddles cap the number of kayaks on the water, so each departure holds only a handful of boats.
What a day out in New Orleans costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price per person. Plenty of the best of the city comes in under the price of dinner on Royal Street.
Ghost walks, cemetery tours, voodoo history and the self-drive swamp boats.
Steamboat jazz cruises, food walks, airboats with pickup and the plantation coaches.
Swamp-and-plantation days with lunch, hands-on cooking classes, helicopter flights and private drivers.
From the French Quarter out to Cajun country: how far each New Orleans day reaches.
The bayou
River Road
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