The things to do in New Orleans that we could check are the French Quarter and Jackson Square, Café du Monde, Frenchmen Street, the National WWII Museum, the St. Charles streetcar, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium, and City Park. For where to stay, pick the French Quarter, the Marigny, the Warehouse District and Central Business District (CBD), or the Garden District. We read each official page on 14 October 2026.
The sights, with address, hours and price
Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral
Hours: Open to the public daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The last visitors go in at 3:45 p.m. It closes to visitors during Mass, weddings and private events. No food or drink, and take off your hat inside (St. Louis Cathedral tours page, Internet Archive copy of 31 Jul 2026, read 14 Oct 2026, because the live site blocked our reader)
Address: 615 Pere Antoine Alley, New Orleans, LA 70116 (same page, footer)
Other sites list other opening times, and our copy of the page is from July, so check before you go. The same page offers a paid private tour at 9:00 a.m., Monday to Saturday. We did not see its price. Mass times are on the cathedral's site, and we did not read them. Jackson Square sits in front of the cathedral. We found no official page on the square's hours.
Café du Monde
Address: 800 Decatur Street, New Orleans, LA 70116. Phone (504) 587-0833. The company lists it as the original French Market stand, one of nine in the New Orleans area (Café Du Monde, locations page, read 14 Oct 2026)
Hours: 7:15 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 7:15 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday (same page). Some older listings say it is open 24 hours. The company page gives set hours, so we use those
Café du Monde is known for beignets. There is also a Café du Monde stand in City Park, at 56 Dreyfous Drive (same page). We found no official menu or price, and no official page on how you can pay at the Decatur Street stand. Not confirmed.
Frenchmen Street
Frenchmen Street is in the Marigny, next to the French Quarter. A travel guide we read describes it as the street with the most clubs and live music most nights. We found no official page, so we give no hours, no cover charge and no list of venues. Each club sets its own.
The National WWII Museum
Address: 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 (National WWII Museum, plan your visit page, read 14 Oct 2026)
Hours: Exhibits and the museum store: open daily, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Beyond All Boundaries: daily, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with shows on the hour. USS Tang Submarine Experience: daily, 11:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Closed Mardi Gras Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (same page)
Price: General admission: adult $37, senior (65 and over) $34, student (K-12 or college) $27, children under 5 free. It covers the exhibit buildings, special exhibits and the USS Tang. Beyond All Boundaries and the Priddy Family Freedom Theater are $9 each or $12 together (same page)
St. Charles streetcar
Price: Single ride $1.25, with a two-hour transfer. 1-Day Jazzy Pass $3.00, 3-Day $8.00, 7-Day $15.00, 31-Day $45.00. A priority single ride is $0.40 and a youth single ride is $0.50. Children 5 and younger ride free (RTA streetcar timetable, summer 2026, "What to Pay", read 14 Oct 2026)
Note: Pay when you board with a Jazzy Pass, exact change, a token or the Le Pass app. Drivers do not carry cash. The St. Charles line is line 12 (same timetable)
Rail work is in progress on the St. Charles line. RTA's release said the Carrollton Double Crossover work, near the end of the line at Carrollton and Claiborne Avenues, began on Monday 27 July 2026 and would take about six months. A bus bridge covers that end of the route (RTA news release, read 14 Oct 2026). We found no end date. Check RTA's service alerts for the day you ride.
Garden District and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1
Note: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, in the Lower Garden District, reopened on Thursday 1 October 2026 for the first time in seven years. It had closed to the public in 2019 because of vandalism, restoration needs and crowding from large tours. Tours are guided, small (16 people or fewer), and run up to six times a day. Sara Lowenberg, director of Save Our Cemeteries at the Preservation Resource Center, is quoted, and the report points to prcno.org for booking (Fox 8 / WVUE, republished by WLOX, 4 Oct 2026, read 14 Oct 2026)
We found no price, tour times or entry rule from the organizer's own site. Older listings show different hours from before the closure, so do not rely on them. Not confirmed. Book through the Preservation Resource Center and ask whether you can enter without a tour.
Audubon Zoo and Aquarium
Address: Audubon Zoo: 6500 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70118. Audubon Aquarium: 1 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 (Audubon Nature Institute, zoo and aquarium pages, read 14 Oct 2026)
Hours: Zoo: open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., last ticket sold at 4 p.m., last entry 4:30 p.m. Aquarium: open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., last ticket sold at 4 p.m., last entry 4:30 p.m. The aquarium is closed on Mardi Gras Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Both pages say hours can change
Price: Zoo: adult "$30 to $40", child or senior "$25 to $35", under 2 free, with a $5 discount for seniors 65 and over. Aquarium and Insectarium: adult "$45 to $55", child or senior "$40 to $50", under 2 free. Both sites show ranges, with no rule for which day costs what, so check the price for your date
City Park
Address: City Park, 1 Palm Drive, New Orleans, LA 70124. The park says it has 1,300 acres (City Park, neworleanscitypark.org, read 14 Oct 2026)
Note: The site lists the Botanical Garden, Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, Storyland, the Train Garden, City Putt, the Louisiana Children's Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Sculpture Garden. Its main page shows no prices or hours for any of them (same page)
A tourist-board guide we saw says entry to the park is free and the rides and attractions have separate fees. The park's main page links to a list of free things to do, but it does not say that entry is free. Not confirmed.
Swamp tours
Swamp tours leave from outside the city. We did not read any operator's page or New Orleans & Company's list, so we name no company, price or pickup. Check an operator's own page for hours and cost.
With kids
The Audubon Zoo and Aquarium, City Park's Storyland, Carousel Gardens and Louisiana Children's Museum, and a streetcar ride are the family options we could source. Children under 5 are free at the WWII Museum, children 5 and younger ride the streetcar free, and children under 2 are free at the zoo and aquarium. Ages and prices differ, so check each page for your child's age.
Where to stay in New Orleans
We did not check any hotel's rate or room list, so we give no prices. Rates change a lot by season, and around Mardi Gras. See our Mardi Gras page for that.
| Area | What it is near |
|---|---|
| French Quarter | Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, Café du Monde (800 Decatur Street) |
| Marigny | Frenchmen Street, next to the French Quarter |
| Warehouse District and CBD | The National WWII Museum (945 Magazine Street) and the Aquarium (1 Canal Street) |
| Garden District | The St. Charles streetcar and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 |
The French Quarter suits a first visit because the main sights are close together. We did not measure any walking time. Choose the Warehouse District or CBD if the museum is your main reason to come. The Garden District is quieter and relies on the streetcar to reach the Quarter. The district names are our own grouping, and we did not check where a given hotel falls.
Is New Orleans safe?
Note: The State Department's advisories are for other countries. Its feed describes them as "a first step in planning any trip abroad", and we found no entry for Louisiana or New Orleans in it on 14 Oct 2026 (travel.state.gov advisory RSS feed, read 14 Oct 2026)
Note: NOPD, first quarter 2026 (1 Jan to 31 Mar): 20 murders and non-negligent homicides, against 27 in 2025 (excluding the victims of the 1 January Bourbon Street attack), 40 in 2024 and 61 in 2023. Armed robberies 54, against 59, 71 and 152. Carjackings 21, against 22, 35 and 63. The release gave no figures for rapes or aggravated assaults (NOPD news release, 7 Apr 2026, read 14 Oct 2026)
These are totals for the whole city for three months. They do not say where crimes happened or who the victims were, and they cover no neighborhood. NOPD's website lists a community crime map and dashboards. Its crime data page, last updated 15 April 2025, showed no 2026 totals. We found no official figure for the French Quarter, the Marigny or any other area, so we make no claim about them. Use the crime map for your dates and ask your hotel about the streets near it.
What we checked and what can change
Read on 14 October 2026: the National WWII Museum's visit page, the RTA's summer 2026 streetcar timetable (fare table) and its release on the St. Charles rail work, the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium pages, City Park's website, Café du Monde's locations page, the WLOX copy of the Fox 8 report on Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, NOPD's April 2026 release and its crime data page, and the State Department advisory feed. The St. Louis Cathedral's tours page was read as an Internet Archive copy dated 31 July 2026, because the live site blocked us.
Not confirmed: the Lafayette Cemetery tour price, times and whether you can enter without a tour, Café du Monde's payment methods, the cathedral's hours after July 2026 and its private tour price, the Frenchmen Street venues and hours, the Botanical Garden and Carousel Gardens prices, any swamp tour operator or price, whether City Park entry is free, any hotel rate, crime figures for any single neighborhood, any RTA fare change after summer 2026, and the RTA's rail-work end date. We did not visit New Orleans for this page.
