New Orleans 7 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
New Orleans 7 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
Seven days is the full spine: everything in our New Orleans 6 Day Itinerary , plus a final day built around the Canal St Ferry to Algiers Point and a farewell brunch, entirely inside the city. If a week feels like too much city and not enough Louisiana, that’s a different trip; this one stays in New Orleans on purpose.
Book these before you go:
- The National WWII Museum ticket , $36 adult, half a day minimum.
- A guided St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 tour , $33, mandatory since 2015.
- Preservation Hall is door-only, no reserved seats to book; check the lineup on preservationhall.com and arrive 30-45 minutes early.
- A Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise , about $43.50 daytime.
- A Garden District walking tour for the mansions and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1’s closed gates.
Day 1: French Quarter First Impressions
Morning: Café du Monde before 9am, cash only, closed nightly rather than 24 hours. Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral (free, 9:30am-4pm), Royal St’s galleries.
Afternoon: A po’boy “dressed” (lettuce, tomato, mayo), then a slow lower-Quarter wander.
Evening: Dinner in the Quarter, Frenchmen Street after 9pm, the Spotted Cat, d.b.a., or the Maison.
Day 2: The Museum and the Garden District
Morning: The National WWII Museum, a full campus, half a day minimum; current hours on nationalww2museum.org .
Afternoon: The St. Charles streetcar (running since 1835) into the Garden District, or the guided walking tour for the mansions’ history and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1’s closed gates.
Evening: Preservation Hall, arrive 30-45 minutes early, no bar or air conditioning.
Day 3: The Cemetery Rule and the River
Morning: Your guided St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 tour, 45 minutes, no walk-ins since March 2015, a rule explained on nolacatholiccemeteries.org .
Midday: The French Market, then the Steamboat Natchez daytime jazz cruise from the Toulouse St. Wharf.
Evening: Marigny and Bywater, dinner at a neighborhood spot, a second Frenchmen St set if there’s energy left.
Day 4: Treme and the Deeper City
Morning: The Backstreet Cultural Museum, Louis Armstrong Park, and Congo Square, jazz’s actual geographic origin.
Afternoon: Magazine St for shopping and antiques, longer and more residential than Royal St.
Evening: Dooky Chase’s Restaurant or another proper Creole kitchen.
Day 5: City Park and the Slow Half
Morning: City Park, NOMA, and the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
Afternoon: Bayou St. John, a walk or a kayak paddle.
Evening: A splurge dinner at Cochon or Herbsaint, a Sazerac to close the night.
Day 6: Mardi Gras World and the Local Register
Morning: Mardi Gras World, the working float-building warehouse, open and touring year-round.
Afternoon: A food-focused walking tour or a gumbo-and-jambalaya cooking class, or a second slower pass through Magazine St.
Evening: A last dinner somewhere you skipped earlier in the week, a final Frenchmen St set.
Day 7: The Ferry and the Farewell
Morning: The Canal St Ferry across to Algiers Point, cheap and genuinely scenic rather than a functional commuter crossing, then a walk through Algiers’ own historic district.
Afternoon: Audubon Park, or one more unhurried lap through whichever neighborhood got shortchanged earlier in the week.
Evening: A farewell brunch at a French Quarter institution before departure, a last Sazerac if the flight allows it.
Is a full week too much time in one city?
Not for New Orleans specifically, because the city rewards slowness in a way most American cities don’t; the music, the food, and the neighborhoods all get better the less you’re rushing between them. It would be too much if this itinerary padded out with generic city-park visits or repeat museum days, which is why day seven is a ferry ride and a brunch, not a filler stop.
Should day 7 include a day trip out of the city instead?
Not on this itinerary. Oak Alley Plantation, the swamp tours, and Baton Rouge are all genuinely worthwhile, but they’re a different kind of day, a rental car or a guided van, hours outside city limits, and they deserve their own planning rather than a bolt-on. Keep this trip inside New Orleans and treat a gateway day trip as reason for a return visit.
| Day | Focus | Book ahead |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | French Quarter, Frenchmen St | Nothing mandatory |
| Day 2 | WWII Museum, Garden District, Preservation Hall | Museum ticket |
| Day 3 | Cemetery tour, Steamboat Natchez, Marigny/Bywater | Cemetery tour, cruise |
| Day 4 | Treme, Congo Square, Magazine St | Nothing mandatory |
| Day 5 | City Park, NOMA, Bayou St. John | Nothing mandatory |
| Day 6 | Mardi Gras World, food tour or cooking class | Nothing mandatory |
| Day 7 | Algiers Point ferry, Audubon Park, farewell brunch | Nothing mandatory |
Book the cemetery tour, the museum slot, and the jazz cruise before you land; the ferry runs all day on a walk-up basis and costs almost nothing. Full seasonal listings live on neworleans.com .