24 Hours in New Orleans - The Big Easy Done Right

The Big Easy is quite easily the most intoxicating city on Earth.  It nudges, distracts, seduces, and occasionally shouts in your ear. It’s also not a city that reveals itself politely or all at once but on a flying visit, don’t let that stop you!  I’ve been lucky enough to visit during all seasons – for Mardi Gras, an NFL weekend (which I’ve blotted the game from memory) and most recently two 24hr stops bookending a trip upcountry.

With just 24 hours in New Orleans, the trick is not to try to “do” the city (you’ll lose, trust me), but to let it carry you - through history, music, food, and the sort of street-corner moments that make the city so memorable.

This itinerary is unapologetically full-on but designed to see a little bit of everything, structured enough to make sense, loose enough to allow some spontaneous dancing to your new favourite live band.

At A Glance

Where To Stay

You’ll base yourself at Inn on St Ann, a well-priced, well-located option right in the French Quarter, close enough to the action but far enough for sleep...it’s actually pretty quiet at night.

From there, the day unfolds on foot, by streetcar, and – because this is New Orleans -  by ear, following the sounds that make this city unlike anywhere else in the United States.

What To Do

• St Louis Cemetery Tour – our morning suggestion, if you want to become equated with the characters and myths of New Orleans, you have to start here

• National WW2 museum – Afternoon suggestion.  Not the obvious history you associated with this city but a remarkably engaging and well-curated museum.

• Music Heritage Tour – A wonderful crash course in the sounds that make the Big Easy.  The stories might match the soundtrack you’ll experience.

• Zipline & Swamp Tour – With longer in the city, tearing yourself away is the challenge.  Ziplining over the bayou then going to meet the local gators is as good an excuse as any.  Read more in my guide to the best day trips outside NOLA.

Other Info

• Bring plenty of cash – a number of places listed here don’t accept cards and you’ll want a wod of notes to tip the musicians you come across.

• The streetcar, ferry and bus network run on Le Pass app – single journeys are less than $2 so download in advance

• Comfortable shoes and copious supplies of water are your friends – as tempting as it is, don’t start on the Hand Grenades too early.  Unless it’s Mardi Gras, in which case knock yourself out.

Morning – St. Louis Cemetery

Start early, before the humidity and tour groups fully assert themselves – plus you get full on creepiness when you’re in a cemetery without undue company. 

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in the city and, due to past vandalism, can only be visited on a guided tour. This is no bad thing. The stories you’ll hear - of yellow fever, voodoo folklore, and the city’s unusual above-ground burial practices (largely because the city lies below sea level) add essential context to what would otherwise be a striking but silent place.  Guessing whether the narrative is truth or myth is all part of the fun.

Official Cemetery Tours are typically run by incredibly knowledgeable and passionate licensed guides (including Save Our Cemeteries) and last around 90 minutes. Tours usually start between 9:00am and early afternoon; adult tickets are approximately USD $25. Booking ahead is strongly advised, especially at weekends or during holiday season

What makes this visit worthwhile is not the celebrity angle - though Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau’s tomb does make an appearance - but the insight into how New Orleans has always adapted to its environment and dangers. Practice picking up your jaw as I guarantee it’ll drop more than once.

Lunch – Jackson Square, Muriel’s & the French Market

From the cemetery, wander back into the Quarter and let Jackson Square set the tone.  This is the spiritual heart of the French Quarter, complete with the requisite street musicians, artists, fortune tellers, and passing wedding parties, who all orbit the square, making it one of the city’s most reliable places for people watching.

For lunch, reserve a balcony table at Muriel’s Jackson Square. Lunch is generally served from around 11:00am to 3:00pm. The balcony views over Jackson Square give you a front row seat for both your eyes and ears.  Thankfully, the food also holds up: classic Creole dishes, properly executed, without unnecessary theatrics. Expect mains in the USD $25–40 range.

After lunch, stroll through the nearby French Market (Open daily, roughly 10:00am–6:00pm), which runs from Jackson Square toward Esplanade Avenue – if you’re still hungry, pick up some beignets from rite-of-passage Café du Monde.

French Market is part souvenir corridor, part food stall hub. It’s undoubtedly touristy but still great fun and a gentle segue into the afternoon.

Afternoon – WWII Museum or City Park

You have a choice this afternoon, and it depends on energy levels and interests.

Option one is the National WWII Museum (open daily 09.00 – 17.00), widely regarded as one of the best museums in the country. It opens daily at 9:00am; adult admission is approximately USD $38 (buy in advance here). I came here on my second visit with my Mum and were both amazed. 

The scale is vast, the storytelling immersive, and the focus on individual experience from servicemen - letters, voices, personal effects – that bring a human dimension to such a vast conflict.

It’s a 10 minute Uber ride from the French Quarter – plan on at least 2-3 hours.

Option two is slower and greener: take the St. Charles or Canal Street streetcar, which is an experience in itself, to City Park, one of the largest urban parks in the US. The New Orleans Botanical Garden sits within it (open Tue-Sun 10.00 – 16.30, entry fee USD $10).  The park is one of New Orleans’ biggest surprises – the second largest urban park in the US behind NYC’s Central Park and an oasis of tranquillity.

If you’re visiting on a Thursday, stick around for “Thursdays at Twilight,” an evening concert series in the gardens with live music and a crowd of knowledgeable locals.  You’ll know it’s good when you see locals break into dance within the first ten minutes.

An alternative to both of these is simply to stay wandering The Quarter and follow your ears – live street music picks up in mid-afternoon and drifting towards it in any direction is very rarely a bad idea.

Evening – Music First, Everything Else Second

If you’re only here one night, evening in New Orleans should begin, end and be intersected with music.  Everything else is entirely secondary.

Begin the evening at Preservation Hall, the spiritual home of traditional New Orleans jazz. Concerts, lasting about fifty minutes, run daily from around 5:00pm until late evening.  Tickets range from roughly USD $25–40…they’ve recently started being sold online so book in advance at the above link.

If you’re more impulsive, line up outside about 30 minutes before the show starts (40-45 minutes at

weekends) for tickets on the door. Seating is minimal (prepare to stand), acoustics intimate, and performances focused entirely on the music.

From here, I’ll caveat the itinerary by repeating earlier guidance to follow your ears from both the streets and within bars.  But if you need an outline plan, here goes…

From Preservation Hall, wander down Bourbon Street to Fritzel’s European Jazz Pub (733 Bourbon St, open until 2am), one of the oldest jazz bars in the city and one of the few places on the infamous Bourbon Street I’d actually recommend for jazz. It typically opens around 10:00am and runs late; live traditional jazz is the draw, performed in a room that feels unchanged by time or trend.  Grab a seat at the bar.

From there, head towards Frenchmen Street, where the night loosens its tie. Grab some casual dining at Dat Dog (601 Frenchmen St open until 12am) where surprisingly inventive sausages with a cajun twist rule the roost – think crawfish and andouille.  Wash it down with NOLA’s own Abita beer.

The strip of venues along here really don’t have a bad option – both The Spotted Cat Music Club and Apple Barrel are good places to start.   Outside Dat Dog on the corner of Frenchmen and Chartres street, keep an eye out for the Young Fellaz Brass Band (they normally start around 9.30pm) who are hands down the best live band I saw in my time in NOLA.  I first stumbled upon them in 2018 and was delighted beyond words when they were still there when I returned seven years later.

Frenchmen Art Market is open (usually 7:00pm–midnight) is well worth a browse.  The range of pieces is remarkable and – unsurprisingly – the artists are never short of a story or six.

Heading back to your hotel (and once you’re musically exhausted), make a stop at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop (941 Bourbon St, closes 3am).  One of the oldest structures in the French Quarter, the voodoo daquiris are memorable and deadly in equal measure.   For some more history, stumble into Lafitte’s in Exile (901 Bourbon St, open 24hrs – good luck with that), the oldest gay bar in the US.  The huffy proclamations of the wall from the 1950s US navy about sailors frequenting the place are eyebrow-raising and the crowd is normally friendly and welcoming.

You’re about 500m from the hotel, it’s now past midnight but I still challenge you to get home without at least one diversion when you hear a trumpet.

24 Hours in New Orleans – The Lowdown

Let’s be honest here – 24 hours in New Orleans won’t tick every box.  In fact, you’ll barely scratch the surface.   That said, it’s ample time to fall inexplicably under the city’s spell and leave with a clear sense of why people return again and again.

The city’s history is heavy, its music relentless, and its food deeply rooted in place and yet it still feels authentic and unlike anywhere else in the US. Itineraries are great – thanks for getting this far – but if there is a single lesson here, it’s simple: follow your curiosity, follow the music, and accept that New Orleans will always keep a little something back for next time. And if you can extricate yourself, go explore the surroundings.

What have I missed?  What’s a must-see in NOLA you’d shout about to anyone who’ll listen?  Tell me in the comments below.