New Orleans is home to those who live here but also, in a way, to those who visit. It’s been my own home for the past seven years, and nearly every day here tends to bring something exciting, wacky, or wondrous. Louisiana’s largest city is both European and American, ancient and young, silly and sacred, polite and profane. This is a proving ground of American sound and literature, and a culinary powerhouse.
There’s no bad time to visit the warm river town. Personally, I’d suggest zip-lining and estuary kayaking in March, exploring the Tremé’s deep African American history in April, going out for crawfish in the middle of May, or floating in a shimmering hotel pool in high August. Read a novel on a grand Southern porch in September, wander a historic cemetery in October, attend a Saints football game in November, or slip into a dive bar for burlesque in December.
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how to spend an unforgettable long weekend in New Orleans.
Clockwise from left: Prince Lobo, Jaime Lobo, and Dr. Biruk Alemayehu, the family that runs Ethiopian restaurant Addis Nola
Photo by Rita Harper
Day 1: Celebrate African American culture and the great outdoors
If New Orleans were a body, the neighborhood Tremé would be its soul. These blocks are the everyday New Orleans, full of historic churches and sunny shotgun homes, storm-bent palms, and independent bakeries. “More so than just about any neighborhood in New Orleans, the Tremé is where you witness New Orleans’ cultural traditions and history on a regular basis,” says Ron Rona. For 20 years, he was the artistic director for Preservation Hall, a historic music venue in the French Quarter with a nonprofit foundation, protecting and promoting music culture in the city since 1961. “Many consider Tremé to be the birthplace of American music,” Rona continues. “And I agree.”
Catching music in the neighborhood is easy, but it’s not always planned, and it happens without marketing. Second line parades and gatherings at the historic St. Augustine Church occur on weekends, musicians may gather in Congo Square on a Tuesday, or a high-school band could be practicing in the middle of the road. Rona says to stay flexible. “Be curious. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open. Most happenings aren’t listed anywhere visitors can reference. Don’t be shy. Ask folks! People here are very open and happy to guide you.”
The Inn at the Old Jail is a historic landmark property in the neighborhood whose walls would have much to say over the centuries. The stone Queen Anne Victorian building went from a police station and jail in the early 1900s to a community center and library, then became abandoned ruins after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. But it was rescued in 2013 and lovingly renovated; rooms now have premium linens, flea-market antiques, and Persian rugs. Innkeeper Todd Schwartz, who lives upstairs, knows many of the town’s musicians, inviting them to play on the roof terrace or in the lobby, where guests will find a pool table, two pianos, and a tiki bar.
There’s no on-site restaurant, but great food is near. Flour Moon Bagels began as a pop-up that bloomed into full brick-and-mortar, thanks to popular, hand-rolled bagels with wild combos like sunflower seed butter and bananas or smoked turkey with jalapeno cream cheese and blueberry jam. Half a mile south from the hotel, there’s also Fatma’s Cozy Corner, where Istanbul-born Fatma Aydin pours Turkish coffee alongside savory staples like falafel and borek in a charming 1800s cottage.
Then it’s time to wander and absorb. Tremé is the oldest African American neighborhood in America, and the Museum of Free People of Color (Le Musée de f.p.c.) preserves the stories of New Orleans’ free Black artists, doctors, journalists, and educators living here prior to the Civil War. (Advance bookings required.)
Post–museum tour, take a flat, 15-minute stroll to Addis Nola for a lunch of authentic Ethiopian jollof rice decorated in succulent, spiced lamb and a fried egg. Then check out St. Louis Cemetery No. 3, only a mile away. After visiting the iconic, raised mausoleums, head two blocks north to the Bayou St. John neighborhood and City Park, where you can kayak past Creole Colonials or explore the park’s 1,400 acres, including a 500-year-old oak grove, a driving range, the Museum of Art, and a sculpture garden.
End your day in the Bywater neighborhood (just five minutes by car from City Park) starting with dinner at Acamaya, which opened in 2024 and was named one of America’s 50 Best by the New York Times in 2025. It’s a sexy temple to single-estate tequila and also a testament to chef Ana Castro’s prowess in contemporary Mexican flavors, brought forth in octopus with walnut salsa negra and hamachi al pastor. The Bywater has another place ideal for mingling with the locals: the ramshackle, graffiti-scarred Vaughn’s Lounge, a beautiful dive with cheap beer and live music most nights.
Ayu Bakehouse (left) says it “celebrates flavors both local and far-flung through the lens of a baker"—and it delivers on that promise.
Photos by Sinna Nasseri
Day 2: European history, rum bars, and raw oysters
The Marigny and the French Quarter are touristy but essential explorations. Start in the Marigny, at Ayu Bakehouse, for Nola twists on classic pastry, like muffuletta breadsticks with salami and capicola, and the Boudin Boy, which is Cajun sausage wrapped in croissant dough.
Your pictures will be filled with color here—lavender shutters, tropical foliage, hot-pink woodwork—as the Marigny is a nexus of vibrant shotgun architecture. Art lovers should also tour massive, impactful murals at Studio BE or pop into JamNola a few blocks away. It’s an immersive cultural art “funhouse” with 29 exhibits created by 100 collaborative local artists.
The French Quarter is next, and don’t skip Napoleon House simply because it’s touristy. To enjoy a gumbo beneath the peeling walls and haphazard art at the beaten bar or its shady courtyard is to fully soak in the city’s haunting charms.
“I’d then spend an afternoon having cocktails around the French Quarter,” advises Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, author, rum expert, and owner of the Quarter’s tiki bar, Latitude 29. If you have the time, he suggests beginning any cocktail adventure over in the Central Business District (CBD), at the Sazerac House, a multi-floor, interactive museum dedicated to the city’s Sazerac, which is regarded as America’s first cocktail.
For French Quarter drinking, “don’t miss the chance to have a Vieux Carré cocktail [rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, and bitters] at the Hotel Monteleone. It was invented there,” Berry says. The Carousel Bar and Lounge inside the hotel is a sight to behold, with carved cherubs and jesters on the rim and barstools that operate like a ride, rotating around the bartenders.
The French 75 cocktail, meanwhile, was not invented at the French 75 Bar at Arnaud’s two blocks away, but “it kind of claims them, and makes them perfectly,” Berry says of the gin-champagne fusion. You’ll need oysters for a proper French Quarter happy hour, and Fives, just off Jackson Square, has an awarded raw bar and a Parisian, old-world atmosphere.
For a soothing, restorative dinner post-cocktails, try MaMou. On a quiet corner, it’s a single, candlelit room, with a menu imagining what Louisiana cuisine might look like had France not agreed to sell. Inventive dishes—like braised celery hearts with beef tongue and risotto with shrimp, crab fat, and radish—are paired with a killer by-the-glass wine program.
The Columns Hotel is well positioned for viewing many of the Mardi Gras parades, and offers day passes to its patio and other amenities for $40.
Courtesy of The Columns hotel
Day 3: French croissants, Japanese knives, and Chinese noodles
Yawn, stretch, and remember . . . it’s a decent drop from the huge four-poster beds at The Columns. The 18-room, Uptown hotel was once a single-family home. Savvy hotelier Jayson Seidman purchased the Italianate mansion (built by architect Thomas Sully in 1883) in 2019 and, in a thoughtful overhaul, created a true city living room. Fringed lampshades and claw-foot tubs sustain a sleek bordello mood in the rooms, and downstairs, lavish parlors showcase folk art exhibits, a coffee counter, and a dreamy, dark saloon scene.
Take a 20-minute stroll through Uptown, going west on St. Charles Avenue, passing under the shade of gnarled live oak branches as the streetcars clang past antebellum homes. Cut south to La Boulangerie on Magazine Street for sourdough boules and savory biscuits, as well as an almond croissant with a revelatory crème d’amande.
Ten minutes northwest by taxi, the neighborhood of Carrollton was a separate city until 1874. Long since annexed into New Orleans and snug against the Mississippi River’s bend, it’s anchored by Oak Street. “Oak still looks like a small-town Main Street, thanks to our historic 1920s and ‘30s building facades,” says Penny Francis, interior designer and owner of Eclectic Home, the street’s furnishing and decor shop, where you can find a small souvenir (or shippable chandelier). There are more retail shops on Oak, such as the chef-loved, culinary outpost Coutelier. This knife shop has Japanese blades, Canada-crafted oyster shuckers, and hardback cookbooks. Check out local Melissa Martin’s Bayou for Cajun recipes. Sibyl is another stop; this industrial-style art gallery, with six-week exhibits, solely features emerging artists.
Freret Street is five minutes by cab from Carrollton and another worthy Uptown corridor, with an array of independent restaurants for lunch. Vals serves tacos and craft cocktails in a revamped filling station that oozes nostalgic Americana charm. Chef Alfredo Nogueira insists on house-made tortillas, and his Tijuana-inspired Caesar with tinned anchovies is a sleeper hit.
If you’re after a classic Southern lunch, High Hat Café is no-frills and as caloric as they come. Get the fried chicken—salty, blistered skin with juicy, tender meat—aside braised turnip greens and buttered cornbread. Follow with exceptional pecan pie.
Freret Market is held in the parking lot at the corner of Freret and Jena Streets on the first Saturday of each month, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., from October through February (excluding January). The market features more than 70 art and food vendors, plus live music.
Go for dinner at the Kingsway, a modern, fine-dining concept celebrating the flavors of Asia, from Delhi to Singapore. The Kingsway opened in 2025, and chef Ashwin Vilkhu bring moments and memories of family dinners to modern tables set with white linen and sparkling china. Don’t miss the Tuna Solera, with a five-year chili sauce, sticky rice, and nori.
“Keep good furniture in service, not in the trash,” says Floor 13 in New Orleans.
Photo by Rita Harper
Day 4: Fly over alligators, bite into barracuda, and hunt antiques
Grab a quick (but exceptional) quiche at the hotel Columns before a 20-minute drive to the Maurepas Swamp, northwest of New Orleans. With estuaries full of reptiles, swooping egrets, and thick tangles of mangroves decorated in Cajun hibiscus, this is wild Louisiana. At ZipNola, guides give you confidence (and fun local lore) as you zip-line from six tree-top platforms over gator-filled marshes.
Back in the city, head for Porgy’s in Mid-City. At this small retail fish market and restaurant, co-proprietor and skilled fishmonger Caitlin Carney wields a boning knife and an infectious personality. The ceviche rotates daily, as do the huge po’boys, because Porgy’s sells only whatever independent fishermen caught that day.
It’s time to take a piece of the city’s past home. Floor 13 is a 17,000-square-foot emporium owned by artist Holis Hannan, five blocks from Porgy’s. Fancy a Victorian fainting couch, rattan divan, or Elvis-image lacquered toilet seat? There’s no telling what you’ll score. Serious architectural salvage may be found at Ricca’s, two blocks over—a treasure trove of bird baths, bank lamps, and vintage door knockers.
For a finale dinner, it has to be Zasu. Chef Sue Zemanick put Mid-City on the map, and her résumé includes a James Beard Award and frequent judge appearances on TV’s Top Chef. Inside a slender, sage-green shotgun house, she serves dishes like fettuccine with blue crab and lemon tarragon crème. Her American red snapper gets a smoky bacon vinaigrette infusion, and every check arrives with a realization: You don’t want to leave. Not the restaurant—and certainly not New Orleans. Don’t worry, Zemanick isn’t going anywhere. And thankfully, neither is this three-century town.
Where to stay in New Orleans
New Orleans hotel options are ample and varied. Newcomers include the Garden District Hotel, with its Southern townhouse design and swim-up bar in the courtyard pool. There’s also Hotel Henrietta in the Garden District—with suites of mosaic tile and custom millwork—and Blackbird, a Gothic Victorian with a Palm Springs–worthy central pool in the Lower Garden District. Hotel Peter & Paul, occupying a historic former schoolhouse and church in Marigny, continues to win awards, and in the French Quarter, you can stay steps from the action at The Celestine, a boutique enclave with 14 rooms, petite private balcony space, a central courtyard, and an awarded cocktail bar.
This article was originally published in February 2025; it was most recently updated on October 24, 2025.
