NEW ORLEANS
Residence Inn New Orleans · French Quarter Area
United States
TRIP OVERVIEW
Day 1 – National WWII Museum · Ogden Museum of Southern Art · Mardi Gras World · Garden District
Day 2 – The Cabildo · Jackson Square · St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
Day 3 – Oak Alley Plantation · Audubon Park
Day 4 – Honey Island Swamp · City Park & Besthoff Sculpture Garden · The Presbytère
Day 1
From Hotel: 🚶 15 min · 🚕 5 min → National WWII Museum
1. National WWII Museum
The most comprehensive World War II museum in the United States, located in New Orleans because the Higgins boat — the landing craft that made D-Day possible — was designed and built here. Its campus covers both fronts through immersive exhibits, original aircraft, and first-person accounts.
🏛️ Daily 9:00am - 5:00pm
⏰ ~3 hr
🚶 3 min · 🚕 1 min → Ogden Museum of Southern Art
2. Ogden Museum of Southern Art
The largest and most comprehensive collection of art by artists from the American South, spanning folk art, photography, and contemporary works across two connected buildings in the Warehouse Arts District.
🏛️ Daily 10:00am - 5:00pm
⏰ ~1 hr 30 min
🚶 24 min · 🚕 5 min → Mardi Gras World
3. Mardi Gras World
A working 300,000-square-foot warehouse where Blaine Kern Studios builds the floats for New Orleans' Mardi Gras parades year-round. Guided tours walk through active float construction, storage of past-parade giants, and a den of Carnival props found nowhere else.
🏛️ Daily 9:00am - 5:30pm
⏰ ~1 hr
🚶 38 min · 🚕 9 min → Garden District
4. Garden District
A self-guided walk through the best-preserved collection of antebellum mansions in the American South, developed on former plantation land between 1832 and 1900 for New Orleans' wealthy American newcomers. A National Historic Landmark district since 1974.
🚕 10 min → hotel
Day 2
From Hotel: 🚶 16 min · 🚕 7 min → The Cabildo
1. The Cabildo
The Louisiana Purchase was signed here in 1803. Now a Louisiana State Museum housing one of the most significant collections of Louisiana history and culture, from colonial-era artifacts to Mardi Gras memorabilia, in a building that predates the United States itself.
🏛️ Tuesday - Sunday 10:00am - 4:30pm
🚫 Closed Monday
⏰ ~1 hr 30 min
🚶 1 min · 🚕 1 min → Jackson Square
2. Jackson Square
Historic plaza at the heart of the French Quarter, anchored by St. Louis Cathedral and flanked by the Cabildo and the Presbytere. One of the most visited public spaces in the American South and the geographic and cultural center of old New Orleans.
🚶 15 min · 🚕 7 min → St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
3. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
New Orleans' oldest surviving cemetery, established in 1789. Its above-ground whitewashed tombs form a dense marble city within a city. Entry requires a licensed guided tour; independent access has been prohibited since 2015 to prevent vandalism to the historic tombs.
🏛️ Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 3:00pm · Sunday 10:00am - 2:00pm
⏰ ~1 hr
⚠️ Entry only with a licensed guide — independent access prohibited since 2015.
🚶 19 min · 🚕 7 min → hotel
Day 3
From Hotel: 🚕 1h 6min → Oak Alley Plantation
1. Oak Alley Plantation
A restored 1839 Greek Revival mansion on the west bank of the Mississippi, named for the 800-foot avenue of live oaks planted nearly a century before the house itself. The tour covers the main house, the grounds, and the reconstructed slave quarters documenting the plantation's enslaved community.
🏛️ Daily 9:00am - 5:00pm
⏰ ~2 hr
🚕 1h 9min → Audubon Park
2. Audubon Park
A 350-acre riverside park laid out on the grounds of the 1884 World Cotton Centennial exposition, with a lagoon, live oak allées, and "The Fly" — a broad lawn overlooking a bend in the Mississippi. The green anchor of Uptown New Orleans.
🚕 22 min → hotel
Day 4
From Hotel: 🚕 49 min → Honey Island Swamp
1. Honey Island Swamp
A 70,000-acre wetland on the West Pearl River, more than half of it permanently protected wildlife — one of the least-altered river swamps in the country. A flat-boat tour with a local guide moves through cypress groves and a Cajun houseboat village, spotting alligators and herons along the way.
🏛️ Daily 7:30am - 9:00pm
⏰ ~2 hr
🚕 43 min → City Park & Besthoff Sculpture Garden
2. City Park & Besthoff Sculpture Garden
A 1,300-acre park built around lagoons and mature live oaks draped in Spanish moss, home to the free Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden — more than 90 works by international artists set among the trees and water. New Orleans' largest green space, distinct in character from Uptown's Audubon Park.
🚕 14 min → The Presbytère
3. The Presbytère
Built in 1813 as an architectural twin to the Cabildo across St. Louis Cathedral, the Presbytère now houses the Louisiana State Museum's two defining exhibits: "Mardi Gras: It's Carnival Time in Louisiana" and "Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond."
🏛️ Tuesday - Sunday 9:00am - 4:00pm
🚫 Closed Monday
⏰ ~1 hr 30 min
🚶 16 min · 🚕 8 min → hotel
🗓️ Weekly Closures
Louisiana State Museum · Closed Monday
📅 Tours
Viator
Guided walking tour of the French Quarter covering its colonial history, architecture, and cultural landmarks from the Spanish colonial era to the present.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 16 min · 🚕 8 min
Small-group walking tour focused on the distinctive Creole and Spanish Colonial architecture of the French Quarter, including ironwork, courtyards, and building history.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Small group
🚶 16 min · 🚕 8 min
📅 3. New Orleans City Tour: French Quarter · Garden District · Cemetery · Viator · 4.7⭐ · 2565+ reviews
Comprehensive city tour covering the French Quarter, Garden District, and St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 by coach, providing an overview of the city's history and culture.
⏳ 3 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
Licensed guide-led tour through the 1789 cemetery covering the above-ground tombs and their history. Entry requires this tour — independent access prohibited since 2015.
⏳ 1 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 19 min · 🚕 7 min
Small-group tour through the French Quarter exploring the history of Creole and Cajun cuisine, visiting legendary restaurants and iconic local spots.
⏳ 3 hr · 👥 Small group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
GetYourGuide
Walking tour through the French Quarter with local storytellers bringing the history and architecture to life through the neighborhood's most compelling characters and events.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 16 min · 🚕 8 min
Guided tour through the Garden District covering its antebellum mansions, historic churches, and the architectural contrast between the American sector and the older French Quarter.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚕 10 min
Small-group tour through the Tremé neighborhood — the oldest African American neighborhood in the United States — exploring Creole culture, music history, and the community that shaped New Orleans.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Small group
📍 Tremé
🚶 39 min · 🚕 11 min
Small-group guided tour exploring the French Quarter's culinary past through its most celebrated restaurants and local institutions, tracing the origins of New Orleans' most distinctive food traditions.
⏳ 3 hr · 👥 Small group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
Full-day guided tour covering the city's key neighborhoods, history, and culture in a single itinerary including the French Quarter, Garden District, and notable landmarks.
⏳ 8 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
TripAdvisor
Walking tour through the French Quarter covering the history and architecture of New Orleans' oldest district, with a guide who knows the neighborhood's colonial layers and hidden details.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 16 min · 🚕 8 min
Small-group tour exploring the French Quarter's past and present through its landmarks, architecture, and hidden stories spanning the colonial period to the modern era.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Small group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
Guided tour of the French Quarter with knowledgeable local guides covering history, culture, and architecture including sites not typically found in standard itineraries.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 14 min · 🚕 10 min
Guided tour of the Garden District's antebellum mansions and tree-lined streets, with context on the neighborhood's history as the home of New Orleans' American elite.
⏳ 2 hr · 👥 Group
🚕 10 min
Guided tour of the National WWII Museum covering the Pacific and European theaters through original artifacts, oral histories, and immersive exhibits.
⏳ 3 hr · 👥 Group
🚶 15 min · 🚕 5 min
☕ Cappuccino
French Truck Coffee — Canal St 4.1⭐ · 200+ reviews
🏛️ Monday - Friday 7:00am - 5:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 8:00am - 5:00pm
🚶 4 min · 🚕 4 min
French Truck Coffee 4.1⭐ · 644+ reviews
🏛️ Monday - Friday 7:00am - 6:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 8:00am - 6:00pm
🚶 8 min · 🚕 4 min
Café Fleur de Lis 4.5⭐ · 4918+ reviews
Café Du Monde 4.6⭐ · 4638+ reviews
🫕 Restaurants Near Hotel
Mr. B's Bistro 4.5⭐ · 2742+ reviews
French Quarter institution known for barbecued shrimp and Gumbo Ya Ya.
🏛️ Monday - Tuesday 5:00pm - 9:00pm · Wednesday - Saturday 11:30am - 9:00pm · Sunday 10:30am - 9:00pm
🚶 6 min · 🚕 6 min
Criollo 4.0⭐ · 412+ reviews
Contemporary Creole in the Hotel Monteleone, beside the rotating Carousel Bar.
🏛️ Daily 6:30am - 2:00pm · Thursday - Monday 6:00pm - 9:00pm
🚶 7 min · 🚕 6 min
Brennan's 4.4⭐ · 2514+ reviews
New Orleans tradition since 1946; birthplace of Bananas Foster.
🏛️ Daily 9:00am - 9:00pm · Friday - Saturday 9:00am - 10:00pm
🚶 10 min · 🚕 7 min
Bayona 4.5⭐ · 941+ reviews
James Beard award-winning bistro; American Creole in a Creole cottage.
🏛️ Monday 11:30am - 9:00pm · Tuesday - Wednesday 5:00pm - 9:00pm · Thursday - Saturday 11:30am - 9:00pm
🚶 13 min · 🚕 8 min
Tableau 4.3⭐ · 1401+ reviews
Creole restaurant with a courtyard overlooking Jackson Square.
🏛️ Wednesday - Thursday 5:00pm - 9:00pm · Friday - Sunday 11:00am - 9:00pm
🚶 15 min · 🚕 7 min
🍽️ Downtown Restaurants
The Pelican Club 4.5⭐ · 674+ reviews
Creative American Creole with Asian influences; Exchange Alley courtyard.
🏛️ Wednesday - Thursday 5:00pm - 9:00pm · Friday - Saturday 5:00pm - 9:30pm · Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Galatoire's 4.3⭐ · 3200+ reviews
Bourbon Street institution since 1905; French Creole in mirrored dining rooms.
🏛️ Tuesday - Sunday 11:30am - 10:00pm
Commander's Palace 4.4⭐ · 4100+ reviews
Garden District landmark since 1893; Creole cuisine at its most refined.
🏛️ Friday - Saturday 11:30am - 9:00pm · Sunday 10:30am - 9:00pm · Monday - Thursday 11:30am - 9:00pm
Dooky Chase's Restaurant 4.3⭐ · 1800+ reviews
Historic Creole soul food in Tremé; Leah Chase cooked here for presidents.
🏛️ Tuesday - Friday 11:00am - 3:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 11:00am - 3:00pm
Cane & Table 4.4⭐ · 1500+ reviews
Proto-tiki bar; Caribbean-influenced Creole in a low-lit 19th-century building.
🏛️ Monday - Friday 5:00pm - 10:00pm · Saturday - Sunday 11:00am - 10:00pm
🍮 Local Tastes
Beignet
Fried dough square dusted heavily with powdered sugar, introduced to Louisiana by French colonists. The French Quarter version served hot from open fryers is one of the defining street foods of the American South.
Po-Boy
Louisiana sandwich on crusty French bread stuffed with fried shrimp, oysters, or roast beef. Originated in New Orleans in the 1920s during a streetcar workers' strike when vendors gave free sandwiches to the strikers.
Gumbo
Thick stew combining West African okra traditions with French roux technique and Choctaw filé powder. New Orleans gumbo is the direct ancestor of the dish served across Louisiana — no two versions are exactly alike.
Café au Lait with Chicory
New Orleans coffee tradition: dark-roasted coffee blended with dried chicory root, served with equal parts hot scalded milk. The chicory tradition dates to Civil War-era shortages and became the defining taste of the city's café culture.
🚆 Train Stations Near Hotel
🚊 New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal
Crescent · City of New Orleans · Sunset Limited → Chicago · New York · Los Angeles · Mobile.
🚶 19 min · 🚕 6 min
⛲️ Day Trips by Train
Bay St. Louis · MS · 1 hr
Gulf Coast arts community with independent galleries, beach access, and a walkable historic downtown on the Mardi Gras Service Amtrak line — a quieter and distinct stop than the casino resorts further east.
Biloxi · MS · 1 hr 30 min
Gulf Coast beach town with casino resorts, the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, and fresh Gulf seafood. The Amtrak Mardi Gras Service runs two round trips daily on this line.
Mobile · AL · 3 hr
🏓 Pickleball
The Exchange · Indoor
6 indoor courts with AC; open play daily, full bar on-site
🏛️ Daily 8:00am - 9:00pm
🚕 10 min
⭐ Michelin Restaurants
⭐ Zasu
⭐ Saint-Germain
Tasting menu · New American · Chefs Trey Smith and Blake Aguillard.
🚕 14 min
🌊 Flood Lines
The Cabildo and Jackson Square sit at the same elevation they did in 1803 when the Louisiana Purchase was signed inside those walls. The land under the French Quarter is the highest ground in the city — a natural ridge left by the Mississippi River — which is why it was settled first and why it survived Hurricane Katrina without flooding. Most of the rest of New Orleans was built on drained swampland and sits below sea level. This geographical accident is the reason there is a French Quarter at all.
The above-ground tombs at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 are often explained by the high water table making underground burial impractical. That is partly true. But the design also reflects the French and Spanish Catholic traditions the city's founders brought with them, where above-ground burial in family vaults was already the cultural norm. The water table confirmed what the culture already preferred.