Visit: Audubon Zoo, 6500 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70118-4848
One of the country’s consistently top-ranked zoos, Audubon Zoo entertains visitors with the excitement of animals from around the world and the serenity of beautiful gardens.
Through innovative natural habitat exhibitory and an animal collection ranging from the uniquely extraordinary white alligators to majestic elephants, Audubon Zoo has become one of the Gulf South’s favorite family gathering spots.
Experience a real swamp in the city in the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit and monkey around a diverse and fascinating group of species in the World of Primates.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, 1 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70130-1152
Located on the Mississippi River adjacent to the French Quarter Audubon Aquarium of the Americas immerses you in an underwater world.
The colors of a Caribbean reef come alive in our walk-through tunnel, while our penguins and Southern sea otter enchant you with their antics.
Touch a stingray, feed a parakeet, and marvel at our gigantic sharks, tarpon, and rays in the 400,000 gallon Gulf of Mexico Exhibit.
Duration: 2 hours
Visit: Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium, 423 Canal St US Custom House, New Orleans, LA 70130-2329
Yes, you can eat a bug at Audubon Insectarium, but there is so much more to this incredible world of insects!
Find out how the most extensive biomass on the planet influences everything we do. This colorful and exciting museum, located on Canal Street in one of the most historic buildings in New Orleans, promises to entertain as it teaches. Visitors love the free-flying butterflies and the unique gift shops!
The Asian inspired Butterflies in Flight garden offers hundreds of butterflies in a spectacular free flight environment. Insects of New Orleans and the Louisiana Swamp immerse you in our local atmosphere and you can find the fastest, biggest and most impressive insects in the Hall of Fame!
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, 425 Basin St 3421 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70112-3535
This escorted 45-minute tour takes visitors through one of the great Cities Of the Dead. Tombs and vaults stand tall in French and Spanish traditions.
Elaborate family tombs, economic wall vaults and society mausoleums are all clustered throughout the meandering walkways and passages. As the final resting place of many historical figures, this tour is rich with enchanting stories and fascinating burial traditions of old New Orleans.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: Edgar Degas House Creole Impressionist Tour, 2306 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70119-2502
This documented historical tour includes exploring both Degas houses and viewing the award winning documentary "Degas in New Orleans, a Creole Sojourn".
Also included is the Creole Neighborhood of Edgar Degas Walking Tour, which explores references to the neighborhood included in Degas' New Orleans letters. Includes Documentary, House and Neighborhood Walking Tour
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: The Escape Game New Orleans, 233 N Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70130-1019
Ready for one of the most thrilling hours of your life? The Escape Game’s 60-minutes adventures play like Hollywood blockbusters with twists, turns, and jaw-dropping surprises around every corner.
Here’s how it works: You and your team will work together to find clues, overcome challenges, and ultimately complete a mission. Escaping will require teamwork, communication, wits, a sense of adventure, and most importantly: YOU!
Choose from one of the following great challenges:
Prison Break, The Heist, Special Ops: Mysterious Market, and Playground:
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
Marvel at the history and architecture of America’s most fascinating neighborhood. This Walking Tour (complete distance less than 1 mile) includes Jackson Square, the St. Louis Cathedral, Pirates Alley and a classic French Quarter Courtyard.
The rich and storied past of New Orleans will fascinate and entertain, framed by the unique Spanish, Caribbean, French and American influences that define the city and today’s New Orleans culture.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: Garden District, St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70130-5968
Walk with one of CitySightseeing’s experienced, licensed, local tour guides, through tree-lined streets radiating with grace and opulence.
Learn about Greek Revival, Italianate and other architectural styles that characterize the area - visit celebrity homes along the way! Beautiful stroll, great for photographers!
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, 40136 Highway 942, Darrow, LA 70725-2302
Tour the historic Louisiana Plantation and explore 38 acres of lush gardens or relax with a refreshing mint julep and enjoy the breeze off the nearby Mississippi River. Experience this architectural gem, and its collection of Fine Art, Furniture and Decorative Arts.
Here the stories of those who lived at this Estate during this Antebellum Period are told. Live life, if only for a day, the way the South was meant to be. Hospitality at its Finest.
Duration: 2 hours
Visit: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, 419 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 70130-1035
We invite you to join us for an educational journey back to the early days of Louisiana bayou and swamp explorations. Swamp creatures, seeing our boats daily, recognize them as part of their normal environment.
Unafraid and responsive to their boat captain's call, they peak out from underbrush and between moss-draped trees and shrubs, frequently coming directly to the boat. In the safety and comfort of the boat, you can actually come within a few feet of jumping alligators.
As your boat drifts through the waterways, you will learn about the Louisiana Wetlands, the inhabitants of the swamp, particularly the life and habits of the American Alligator, as well as the unique history of the Cajun town of Frenier within the Manchac Swamp.
Duration: 2 hours
Visit: Le Musee de f.p.c., 2336 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70119-2502
Locked by law into a marginal existence between slavery and freedom, free people of color were anomalies in a caste society rooted in Black and White, master and enslaved.
Still, their undeniable achievements and vibrant culture serve to rewrite the conventional narrative of the history of New Orleans. Le Musée de f.p.c. deals exclusively with interpreting, preserving and presenting the story and material culture of free people of color as it examines the first three centuries of New Orleans history.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: Mardi Gras, New Orleans, LA 70130-1805
Walk through the hard work and extensive planning that goes into this grand event when you tour Blaine Kern Studios, an operating workshop that has created breathtaking floats for Mardi Gras and other parades around the world since 1947. On the tour, you’ll be paired up with a knowledgeable guide who takes the mask off of Mardi Gras.
This all-access opportunity winds you through the massive studio, where artists and architects build Mardi Gras floats from the ground up. You’ll learn about the history of this unique and festive tradition, going beyond its reputation to get a deeper understanding of the REAL Mardi Gras.
The whole family will love touring the space where our artisans create show-stopping floats for more than 40 parades each year. This New Orleans tour is an experience you’ll want to document.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Visit: The National WWII Museum, 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130-3813
Designated by Congress as the official WWII museum of the United States, The National WWII Museum is located in downtown New Orleans on a six-acre campus, where five soaring pavilions house historical exhibits, on-site restoration work, a period dinner theater, and restaurants.
The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations can understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn.
Through exhibits, multimedia experiences, and an expansive collection of artifacts and first-person oral histories, the Museum takes visitors on an immersive tour of World War II in every theater of war.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: New Orleans Botanical Gardens, 1 Palm Dr, New Orleans, LA 70124-4608
HISTORY - The New Orleans Botanical Garden has its roots in the Great Depression as a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Originally known as the City Park Rose Garden, the garden opened in 1936 as New Orleans’ first classical garden. Designed for everyone in New Orleans to enjoy, it is one of the few remaining examples of public garden design from the WPA and Art Deco Period.
TODAY - Reborn as the New Orleans Botanical Garden in the early 1900's, today’s garden provides a vibrant palette to explore well over 2,000 varieties of plants from all over the world. The 12 acre site contains several themed gardens including the Butterfly Walk, Enrique Alferez Sculpture Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden and Tropical Garden.
Duration: 2 hours
Visit: New Orleans Jazz Museum, 400 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70116-2015
The New Orleans Jazz Museum celebrates jazz in the city where it was born.
Through dynamic interactive exhibitions, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms.
Strategically located at the intersection of the French Quarter and the Frenchman Street live music corridor, the New Orleans Jazz Museum is in the heart of the city’s vibrant music scene.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: Old Ursuline Convent Museum, 1100 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70116-2505
Take a step back in history! Be a part of the history and cultural heritage of the Catholic Church and the city of New Orleans. Come visit the Old Ursuline Convent Museum, the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley. Located in the historic French Quarter, the Old Ursuline Convent was erected in 1745 and occupied until 1824 by Ursuline nuns as a convent, orphanage and school for girls. This historic building is now home to a brilliant museum with both permanent and changing exhibits.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: Mississippi River, LA
New Orleans' only Tricentennial River Cruise! Focusing on 300 years of New Orleans history, this cruise offered twice daily is narrated by a costumed reenactor who takes guests on a journey through the story of the city as we sail downriver to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and the historic Chalmette Battlefield.
Highlights of the tour include the founding of the city by the LeMoyne brothers, the expansion of the city into the “French Quarters” of the Treme and Marigny, the Louisiana Purchase, and the critical Battle of New Orleans. A one-hour shore excursion at the battlefield features a guided tour and talk by National Park Rangers.
Step back into the glamour and romance of the riverboat era with a cruise aboard the Paddlewheeler Creole Queen! Experience the lively sounds of the amazing Sullivan Dabney, Jr. and the Muzik Jazz Band. Enjoy the sweet Mississippi River breezes on our promenade deck as the city skyline slips by under a canopy of stars.
Duration: 2 hours
Visit: 1850 House, 523 St Ann Street, New Orleans, LA 70116-3318
Few places offer the chance to experience the lifestyle of our ancestors of more than 150 years ago.
The 1850 House is one of these rare places, offering a glimpse of upper-middle-class life in antebellum New Orleans, the most prosperous period in the city’s history. The 1850 House doesn’t represent any single family’s house, rather, it reflects mid-19th century prosperity, taste and daily life in New Orleans.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: Cabildo, 701 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Your visit to New Orleans’ historic French Quarter would not be complete without a stop at Jackson Square, which is where you will find the Cabildo.
This elegant Spanish colonial building neighbors St. Louis Cathedral and houses many rare artifacts of America’s history. In commemoration of the city’s 300th anniversary, the Louisiana State Museum debuted a new exhibition, We Love You, New Orleans!, celebrating people, places, and things that are quintessentially New Orleans including Sidney Bechet’s saxophone, a Mardi Gras Indian suit, memorabilia from Pontachartrain Park, and a K&B sign, among other things.
Come visit the Cabildo, the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies in 1803 and one of Louisiana’s most significant historical buildings. From landmark court cases to visits from international ambassadors, many important events in Louisiana have taken place within the Cabildo.
The three floors of Cabildo exhibitions cover the history of Louisiana by featuring artifacts such as documents, paintings and 3D objects from the museum’s vast collection.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: McKenna Museum of African American Art, 2003 Carondelet St, New Orleans, LA 70130-5310
Through innovative programs and exhibits that engage versatile audiences, the McKenna Museum seeks to make African Diasporan fine art accessible to visitors of all ages. The institution identifies and presents emerging artists alongside well established fine arts masters.
The Mckenna Museum is committed to the preservation of the distinct culture found within the African American community of Louisiana.
Duration: 1 hour
Visit: The Presbytere, 751 Place John Paul Deaux Jackson Square, New Orleans, LA 70116-3205
The Presbytère’s two permanent exhibits tell two sides of the ongoing Louisiana story—one of celebration and one of resilience.
Mardi Gras: It’s Carnival Time in Louisiana offers a window into the annual celebration and riotous rituals of Mardi Gras, a festival that is inextricably woven into Louisiana’s way of life and whose roots extend deep into the Middle Ages. There are parade floats to climb, costumes to see and historical throws on display as well as rare glimpses into the secretive social club society from which modern-day Mardi Gras krewes evolved.
The Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond exhibit tells of rescue, rebuilding and renewal. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans’ badly engineered levee system, it resulted in one of the worst disasters in American history, leaving 80 percent of the city flooded and hundreds dead. The exhibit documents the event, the aftermath and southeast Louisiana’s ongoing recovery.
Duration: 1 hour
