your 3-day guide to new orleans

  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.
  • New Orleans travel guide, activity recommendations, and curated itinerary from What to When.

Stay: I stayed at Hotel Peter & Paul. The service wasn’t the best, but the buildings and decor are beautiful; the hotel spans a restored church, school, and convent, and each room is so well designed. It’s not the most central location (great if you’re spending time in the French Quarter or Bywater), but it is a bit far from the Garden District and Uptown, so we ended up ubering often. Even so, I’d still recommend it, and stay there again. Other hotels I considered but were full when I went: Hotel Saint Vincent, The Chloe, The Columns.

Day 1: French Quarter

  • Lunch at Lil Dizzys - my favorite meal of the trip. Get the fried chicken, mac & cheese, and gumbo.

  • Explore the French Quarter

    • Shops to stop into: Marie Laveau’s Voodoo, Fifi’s Custom Wigs, Vice & Graft, Arcadian Books, Faulkner House Books

    • Beignets at Café du Monde

  • Drinks at The Elysian Bar, then Salon Salon

  • Dinner at Coquette

Day 2: Garden District

  • Stop by Hotel Saint Vincent, NOLA Mix Records, and Century Girl Vintage

  • Walk the Garden District

    • Beautiful streets: St. Charles Avenue, Coliseum, 2nd St, 3rd St

    • And see the cemetery (though you can’t go in)

  • Lunch: Domilise’s, Guy’s Po-Boys, or Turkey & the Wolf (though it felt slightly overhyped)

  • Sno-Blitz at Hansen’s - feels like stepping back in time

  • Drink on the porch at The Columns

  • If time allows: Audubon Park

  • Dinner at Lilette

  • Live music: Preservation Hall (book tickets in advance!), Maple Leaf, or any bar on Frenchmen Street

Day 3: WWII + Bywater

  • WWII Museum - highly recommend adding the Beyond All Boundaries 4D film

  • Jazz brunch at Commander’s Palace

  • Explore Bywater – margaritas at Galaxie, live music + wine at Bacchanal

  • Dinner at N7 – my favorite dinner of the trip

Other things to add

  • City Park + St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 (and stop at the City Park Café du Monde)