Best Tours in New Orleans

The city of New Orleans is a vibrant and bustling destination. With a focus on tourism, nightlife and entertainment there are many things to see, do and enjoy in this city.

In this list I recommend the most popular organised tours to do in the city so that, when it comes time to organise your travel itinerary, you will have options to choose from.

I recommend selecting some of the experiences highlighted here and complementing them with some excursions from New Orleansto the famous old plantations.

Considered one of the staple experiences of any visit to the city, a ghost tour of New Orleans is essential for getting to know its people and culture. It's also one of the top-rated adventures for travellers who genuinely enjoy the spooky stories.

Numerous companies offer this type of experience and it comes in a variety of formats, from adult-only tours to tours specially designed for families with children of all ages.

Generally these ghost tours take place at night and are short adventures. Therefore, I recommend booking the experience even if your itinerary is very short, for example 1 day in New Orleans.

Useful information

• Price: Available from approximately €28 per traveller.
• Duration of tour: Generally 2 hours is enough time to complete the experience.
• Recommended if... it's your first time in the city or if you've never done this type of experience before. This is a unique adventure that New Orleans offers its visitors with a level of dedication and commitment that is hard to match.

The French Quarter is the name given to the most important historic quarter of New Orleans, the most touristy and a must-see on a tour of the city.

In the city you will find numerous companies offering this experience, where an expert guide takes travellers on a walking tour through the most outstanding monuments, the most secret places and the most important sights.

While certain details of the experience may vary depending on the company you hire, a tour of the French Quarter in New Orleans will always include the accompaniment of an expert guide with a degree in the history of the city. The experience is usually offered in several languages, with English tours predominating over other languages.

Useful information

• Price: The basic tour which only includes the French Quarter is available from approximately €28.
• Duration of tour: For a tour of the French Quarter, at least 2 full hours of the itinerary must be booked.
• Recommended if... It's your first time visiting the city, this tour is a must-do. Essential to get to know the most important historical monuments of the city.

After the iconic French Quarter, the second most important neighbourhood in the city is the Garden District, at least from a tourist and historical point of view. This is an extremely elegant area of the city dominated by tree-lined alleyways and grand manor houses built in the 19th century.

It is a spectacular visit that is usually organised in small groups. I recommend including it if you are visiting the city for several days, for example 3 days in New Orleans. Another great way to do this tour is a combination tour.

You'll find many companies in the city that organise Garden District tours in conjunction with French Quarter tours, due to the physical proximity of the two destinations.

Useful information

• Price: The exclusive Garden District tour usually costs approximately €28 per traveller.
• Duration of tour: This type of experience usually takes approximately 2 hours to complete.
• Recommended if... you want to marvel at the city's historic architecture and legends. It is a tour that is well worth doing and that you can combine with other experiences or tours included in this list.

When visiting New Orleans you should keep one thing in mind: besides ghosts, mysteries and good music, the food in this city is delicious! Of course, the best way to get to know and soak up the local culture is through an expertly guided tour.

As you'll soon realise, you'll find numerous local companies in the city offering this kind of experience, at different times and with different approaches, so it's easy to find a tour that suits your needs.

Whether you're looking for a private, one-on-one experience or the fun and good vibes of group tours, when it comes to food tours in New Orleans, there's something for everyone!

Like other New Orleans experiences, these tours are led by a local foodie guide. Important details such as whether or not tasting is included, drinks, the number of places to visit and the maximum number of travellers are determined by the company organising the experience.

Useful information about New Orleans

• Price: Tours that include food tasting usually cost from €65 per traveller.
• Duration of tour: They usually take place at lunch or dinner time and usually take around 3 hours to complete.
• Recommended if... Food tourism is your thing, this tour will be the highlight of the whole trip. The cuisine in New Orleans is one of the most peculiar thanks to the strong influence of African customs and Afro-Latin culture.

Another popular tour in the city and one that tourists often enjoy is a tour of the city' s most famous cemeteries. Two cemeteries are among the most prominent and most visited: Lafayette Cemetery No.1 and St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

As in so many other cities, NOLA's cemeteries range from ceremonial architecture and ancient tombs to historic landmarks. However, because of the culture's strong connection to the supernatural and death, a tour of New Orleans cemeteries, accompanied by an expert guide, is invaluable.

This experience is designed to take the traveller to the graves of the likes of voodoo queen Marie Laveau and famous American activist Homer Plessy. All this while discovering all sorts of curiosities surrounding the history and culture of the city.

Useful information about the cemeteries

• Price: The guided tour of any of the cemeteries usually costs around €25 per participant.
• Duration of the tour: Although it may vary depending on the design of the experience, book at least 1 hour for a cemetery tour.
• Recommended if... you want to learn more about the culture, history and past of the city as well as its most famous figures. Also if you are attracted by the architecture of the cemeteries and want to learn more about them.

It's ideal for soaking up the nightlife scene in the city as well as getting a closer understanding of the influence of Jazz in New Orleans, how it's lived these days and how it has evolved through history.

Keep in mind that some aspects of the experience depend entirely on the company you choose to hire. For example, the inclusion or not of drinks, the length of the tour and the number of participants. This tour is one of the best things to do in New Orleans at night.

Most tours usually include 1 or 2 tastings of local drinks at each of the bars or pubs you stop at on the tour; they are of course accompanied by a knowledgeable guide and often include live music.

Useful information

• Price: For group tours with drinks tasting you'll pay around €45 per traveller on average; private tours are more expensive.
• Duration of the tour: They always take place in the evening and usually last about 3 hours.
• Recommended if... you're going to the city with friends and looking for a few hours of fun around good music and alcohol; also if you're visiting the city alone, this atmosphere is ideal for meeting other adventurous traveller friends like yourself.

The city of New Orleans celebrates Fat Tuesday, the largest Mardi Gras party in the United States and one of its most colourful carnivals.

If you happen to be in town at this time of year (late February or early March in New Orleans) you definitely have to attend the Carnival parade.

New Orleanians love Carnival so much that they try to keep the festive atmosphere going for much longer. That's why, no matter when you travel, you can enjoy a Mardi Gras tour.

An expert guide will take you through the iconic sites of the carnival parade to experience what is known as the Mardi Gras Experience. This is combined with a tour of the city and colourful carnival costumes for photos.

The visit also includes a trip to Mardi Gras World, the warehouse and workshop where architects and artists bring the colourful floats to life.

Useful information

• Price: The guided tour is available for around €50 per traveller.
• Duration of tour: This type of experience usually lasts approximately 2 hours.
• Recommended if... You want to experience Carnival culture; it's great fun if you're going to New Orleans with kids on holiday, especially the costume part.

The passage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is remembered as one of the greatest tragedies of modern times. The flooding of the Mississippi River left the city with extensive material and human damage, which is still fresh in the memory of its people.

On the other side of the coin we could appreciate the amazing recovery plan. Today you can take a guided tour of the city that shows you in detail this important historical event and the plans implemented to overcome the tragedy.

This type of experience is usually combined with other popular and slightly more touristy tours of New Orleans. Such as a tour of the French Quarter, an architectural tour of New Orleans and/or a tour through the District Garden.

Useful information

• Price: The price to pay for the experience is around €48 per traveller.
• Duration of tour: If you book a combined tour it can take 3-4 hours to complete the experience.
• Recommended if... you have time to walk around and visit less touristy areas of New Orleans. This tour can be more interesting when combined with other experiences and tours discussed in other sections of this list.

No trip to the beautiful southern city of New Orleans would be complete without one of its traditional swamp tours. Considered a staple experience on your first visit to the city, you'll experience the deep, secluded swamps that still exist in the city, some of which are privately owned.

Due to the demand for this type of activity you will find several local companies in NOLA offering this type of experience. They range from 2-hour itineraries with speedboat or boat tours to those lasting up to 9 hours. The latter include lunch and visits to nearby plantations where you'll see the area's wildlife. Alligators, raccoons or snakes live there... and you can meet them up close!

Useful information about New Orleans

• Price: The price to pay for the experience ranges from €48 per participant to €240, depending on the time and whether it includes a boat ride, boat trip or a visit to a plantation.
• Duration of the excursion: Varies depending on the company you hire and the itinerary. You should book between 2 hours and a full day.
• Recommended if... You're interested in seeing the Creole roots of New Orleans from the deep cypress swamps overlooking the great sugar plantations.

Saying New Orleans means playing jazz. No one is unaware that it is the cradle of this musical style that brought with it the multiculturalism of the colonies that mixed in the city. That's why, if you are a music lover, you can't miss a jazz tour of New Orleans.

On this tour you'll learn about the origins of jazz as you stroll through various emblematic areas such as Louis Armstrong Park, dedicated to one of the greats of music and born in New Orleans. You'll also be guided by a local guide through the Marigny district and Frenchman Street, all accompanied by live jazz music and beer tasting.

Useful information

• Price: From 60 euros
• Duration of the tour: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.
• Recommended if... You like jazz, its history and the culture that surrounds this unique style that originated in New Orleans.