Discover New Orleans: A Self-Guided Tour
New To The Site!
New Orleans, USA
8 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
Mobile ticket
Instant confirmation
Offered in: English
Overview
Discover New Orleans' intoxicating blend of French, African, and American soul with our self-guided audio tour app, allowing you to explore the Crescent City at your own pace. Begin in the legendary French Quarter where wrought-iron balconies drip with ferns above cobblestone streets that have witnessed three centuries of revelry, revolution, and reinvention. Wander down Bourbon Street where jazz spills from every doorway, then escape to the quieter charms of Royal Street's antique shops and art galleries. Stand in Jackson Square where Andrew Jackson's statue rises before the triple spires of St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest continuously operating cathedral in North America. Explore the above-ground tombs of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, the 'Cities of the Dead' that inspired vampire legends and voodoo tales. Stroll through the Garden District's oak-shaded avenues where Greek Revival mansions and Victorian confections showcase the wealth of antebellum cotton kings.
What's Included
- Offline content.
- Self-guided walking tour (app)
- Access to the audio guide for 50+ New Orleans attractions and hidden spots.
- Private transportation
- Entry fees to tourist attractions or museums.
- Our app-based self-guided tour has no physical guide on-site.
Meeting Location
Meeting point
New Orleans
LA 70116, USA
Detailed check-in instructions, including the exact address, are provided with your booking confirmation.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.
What To Expect
Jackson Square
The historic heart of the French Quarter has served as parade ground, execution site, and public gathering space since the city's founding in 1718, its iron-fenced garden now hosting artists, fortune tellers, and street performers beneath the gaze of General Andrew Jackson's bronze monument. The square's Pontalba Buildings, with their iconic wrought-iron galleries, represent America's oldest apartment buildings and frame views of St. Louis Cathedral's soaring spires. Tarot readers, brass bands, and mule-drawn carriages create the quintessential New Orleans atmosphere that has attracted visitors since Mark Twain first described its peculiar magic.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
St. Louis Cathedral
The oldest continuously active Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States has anchored Jackson Square since 1727, its current incarnation dating from 1850 when the triple-steepled facade became the defining image of the New Orleans skyline. The cathedral's interior glows with murals, stained glass, and the baroque altar where Creole aristocrats worshipped alongside free people of color in a city whose racial complexity defied simple categorization. The adjacent St. Anthony's Garden, hidden behind the cathedral, provides peaceful escape where duels were once fought and pirate Jean Lafitte allegedly plotted with future president Andrew Jackson.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
French Quarter
America's most famous neighborhood preserves the colonial street grid and architectural character established under French and Spanish rule, its narrow streets lined with Creole townhouses whose galleries and courtyards create spaces for the social life that defines New Orleans. The Quarter's 80 square blocks encompass Bourbon Street's neon revelry, Royal Street's refined antiques, and quiet residential lanes where locals tend potted gardens on ironwork balconies. The neighborhood's remarkable survival through fire, flood, and development pressure has made it a National Historic Landmark whose authentic 18th and 19th-century fabric draws millions seeking a glimpse of America before homogenization.
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
Bourbon Street
The world's most famous party street pulses with music, neon, and revelry from dawn to dawn, its bars and clubs serving hurricanes, hand grenades, and the go-cups that allow drinking to spill onto the street in a celebration that never ends. The street's reputation for excess obscures its historical significance as the center of colonial New Orleans and its architectural beauty visible above the tourist-oriented storefronts. By day, the bleary aftermath and power-washing crews reveal the street's ornate ironwork and ancient buildings; by night, the competing sounds of jazz, rock, and karaoke create the cacophony that has defined American freedom since French colonists first named this street for their royal dynasty.
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
Royal Street
The French Quarter's most elegant thoroughfare offers the sophisticated counterpoint to Bourbon Street's bacchanal, its blocks lined with world-class antique shops, art galleries, and the ornate facades of Creole townhouses built by the city's wealthiest families. Street musicians perform classical and jazz beneath the galleries while auction houses sell everything from Civil War swords to Fabergé eggs in establishments that have served collectors for generations. The architecture along Royal reveals the French Quarter's true character—intricate ironwork, hidden courtyards, and the subtropical lushness that makes New Orleans feel more Caribbean than American.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (Pass By)
New Orleans' oldest and most famous cemetery showcases the above-ground tombs necessitated by the city's high water table, creating the 'City of the Dead' that has inspired vampire novels, voodoo legends, and countless photographs. The whitewashed tombs, family vaults, and society crypts reflect the hierarchies of 19th-century Creole society while the alleged tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau draws visitors who leave offerings and scratch X marks seeking her intercession. Access requires a licensed tour guide, protecting the fragile tombs while ensuring visitors understand the unique funerary traditions that make New Orleans cemeteries unlike any others in America.
Cafe Du Monde Gift Shop
This iconic coffee stand has served beignets and café au lait 24 hours a day since 1862, its open-air pavilion beneath the French Market awnings becoming the essential New Orleans experience for generations of visitors and locals alike. The powdered-sugar-dusted beignets arrive three to an order, their yeasted dough fried to golden perfection and designed to be consumed immediately with the dark-roasted chicory coffee that French settlers adopted during the Civil War blockade. The restaurant's lack of walls, constant crowds, and strategically unavoidable location make it impossible to visit New Orleans without succumbing to its sweet, caffeinated temptation.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Frenchmen Street
The locals' alternative to Bourbon Street has become New Orleans' most vibrant live music corridor, its clubs hosting the brass bands, jazz combos, and genre-defying acts that represent the city's contemporary music scene. The street's three blocks pack in legendary venues like the Spotted Cat, d.b.a., and the Maison where world-class musicians play for audiences squeezed onto tiny dance floors or spilling onto the sidewalk. The Frenchmen Street Art Market and surrounding restaurants have made the area a complete evening destination where the music is authentic, the crowds are diverse, and the spirit of New Orleans burns brightest.
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
Garden District
This antebellum neighborhood of magnificent mansions represents the wealth and aspirations of American merchants who settled upriver from the French Creole establishment after the Louisiana Purchase. The oak-shaded streets reveal an architectural parade of Greek Revival columns, Italianate brackets, and Victorian gingerbread that housed cotton kings, sugar barons, and their rivals in increasingly elaborate displays of prosperity. Magazine Street's boutiques, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1's atmospheric tombs, and Commander's Palace restaurant anchor a neighborhood that feels worlds removed from the French Quarter's raucous energy.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
New St. Claude
The world's oldest continuously operating streetcar line has rumbled along St. Charles Avenue since 1835, its olive-green cars providing the most romantic transportation in America as they pass beneath a tunnel of live oak trees draped with Spanish moss. The 13-mile route connects the French Quarter to Carrollton, passing the mansions of the Garden District, the campuses of Tulane and Loyola universities, and Audubon Park's ancient oaks. Riding the wooden seats, pulling the brass cord for stops, and watching the neighborhoods change provides an essential New Orleans experience that costs merely the price of a transit fare.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
The National WWII Museum (Pass By)
Consistently ranked America's finest museum, this sprawling complex tells the story of World War II through immersive exhibitions, personal testimonies, and artifacts ranging from Higgins boats (invented in New Orleans) to a restored B-17 bomber. The museum's pavilions trace the war from the road to conflict through victory in both European and Pacific theaters, using state-of-the-art technology and first-person accounts to make history viscerally immediate. Beyond the military history, the museum explores the home front, the Holocaust, and the war's lasting impact on American society.
Mississippi River Heritage Park
The mighty river that created New Orleans and determined its destiny curves past the French Quarter in a sweeping bend that gave the city its Crescent City nickname. The Moonwalk promenade offers views of cargo ships, paddlewheel steamboats, and the distant West Bank while Woldenberg Park provides green space where festivals, concerts, and ordinary afternoons unfold against the industrial poetry of the working river. The Steamboat Natchez departs twice daily for jazz cruises that recall the era when river traffic made New Orleans America's wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city.
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation is instant and will be received at time of booking
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Frequently Asked Questions
(6)Q: What is the cancellation policy for the Discover New Orleans: A Self-Guided Tour?
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the tour for a full refund.
Still have questions?
We're here to help.
Activity code: C-5520738P140
Additional Info
Similar Tours & Activities
2 hours Free Cancellation Instant Confirmation
from
$29
$29
Travelers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
2 hours 30 minutes Free Cancellation Instant Confirmation
from
$47
$47
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise
4.4
(4,478)
2 hours Free Cancellation Instant Confirmation
from
$43.50
$43.50
1 hour 45 minutes Free Cancellation Instant Confirmation
from
$27.99
$27.99
1 day Free Cancellation Instant Confirmation
from
$51
$51
Frequently Asked Questions (6)
The answers provided below were previously given in response to questions from Cool Havana customers.
Filter by:
Q:
What is the cancellation policy for the Discover New Orleans: A Self-Guided Tour?
A:Apr 2025
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the tour for a full refund.
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the tour start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the tour start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the tour start time will not be accepted.
- Cut-off times are based on the tour local time (CST).
Q:
What's included in the price?
A:
Apr 2025
The following is included:
- Offline content.
- Self-guided walking tour (app).
- Access to the audio guide for 50+ New Orleans attractions and hidden spots.
The following is NOT included:
- Private transportation.
- Entry fees to tourist attractions or museums.
- Our app-based self-guided tour has no physical guide on-site.
Q:
What is the minimum age for this tour?
A:
The minimum age to participate is 15..
Apr 2025
Q:
My date is not available in the calendar, I am just checking to see if it is available?
A:
If a date or time is not listed on the calendar, it’s sold out or unavailable for another reason. Support cannot assist further if a date or time is not on the calendar.
If you find a date and time that works for you, book it NOW because things always sell out at this time of year.
Apr 2025
Q:
Is this an accessible tour?
A:Apr 2025
Accessibility information for the Discover New Orleans: A Self-Guided Tour is as follows:
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Q:
Where is the meeting point for this activity?
A:
Detailed check-in instructions – including meeting point address, Google map, and parking information – for Discover New Orleans: A Self-Guided Tour will be included in your confirmation email from Cool Havana. Please be sure to double and triple check your email address is correct at checkout so this important email makes its way to you!
Mar 2024What's Included
- Offline content.
- Self-guided walking tour (app)
- Access to the audio guide for 50+ New Orleans attractions and hidden spots.
- Private transportation
- Entry fees to tourist attractions or museums.
- Our app-based self-guided tour has no physical guide on-site.
Additional Info
- Confirmation is instant and will be received at time of booking
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
