Things to do in New Orleans

It’s almost redundant to suggest stopping anywhere in the French Quarter, the world’s greatest spot for just, well, wandering. Many begin their beautifully aimless exploration of the neighbourhood from its heart in Jackson Square, where artists and tarot readers surround famous St Louis Cathedral. Make sure to shop on Royal Street, and don’t leave without catching a set of traditional, unamplified jazz at cozy Preservation Hall (if you’re there in the evening). But otherwise just wander, and wonder, getting absorbed in small surprises.

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On 3 July 1929, New Orleans’ daily newspaper announced that ‘work must resume!’ and the city’s transit strike – which shut down its vital streetcars – had to end. But the strike went on so long that, in a show of support for the streetcar drivers, the owners of Mother’s Restaurant on Willow Street began giving out free, low-budget French baguette sandwiches to all those ‘poor boys’ on the picket line. These days, a ‘dressed’ po’boy comes with meat or seafood, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and nothing more. Mother’s also coined the term ‘debris’ to describe its roast beef po’boys’ sloppy gravy.

Driving in quaint areas of the city, such as the French Quarter – or, more to the point, parking there – can be painful, but cycling is the best way to get around. Plus it gives visitors the most bang for their buck. Hire a bike and cycle through the French Quarter and bohemian Faubourg Marigny, past gorgeous mansions on Esplanade Avenue, with stops at cemeteries and other attractions along the way in this surprisingly compact – and mercifully flat – city.

Not a traditional tourist hub, New Orleans’s Mid-City neighbourhood nonetheless provides the same high level of southern architecture as Uptown’s Garden District, while also somehow feeling cosy and relatable. Any visitor would be unfortunate to miss the 1,300-acre City Park – with its beignet cafe, theme park rides, and system of beautiful lakes – which is just around the corner from the equally beautiful kayaking spot, Bayou St John. After a day in this urban paradise, head back up Esplanade Avenue to take a tour of French painter Edgar Degas’ former house, followed by drinks and fine cuisine at the nearby Café Degas.

A trip on the famous St. Charles Avenue streetcar is a must, unfurling a miles-long panorama of Southern street life stretching from the Central Business District to Audubon Park, and way Uptown. The city has added a couple new lines recently, including one from the French Quarter down funky St Claude Avenue, ending in the Faubourg Marigny neighbourhood. Not far away begins the Ninth Ward, where the levee broke in 2005, and where you can take a guided tour through the neighbourhoods that were hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

You could spend hours browsing blocks of independent contemporary art galleries on Julia Street in New Orleans’s Central Business District. But on the first Saturday night of every month, it hosts beautiful (and boozy) gallery hops. On the second Saturday of each month, the St Claude Arts District offers a similar experience in a much more experimental, underground scene.

The best view of the French Quarter and many other of New Orleans’s most famous sights can be glimpsed from the city’s least famous riverbank: take a $2 ferry ride across the Mississippi River to Orleans Parish’s second oldest neighbourhood, Algiers Point. You may find yourself the only tourist in Algiers’ Folk Art Zone and Blues Museum, and you’ll likely be dancing with just locals to the music at Old Point Bar, where the river breeze renders the humidity more than tolerable.

You could spend your entire trip to New Orleans just visiting the city’s museums. In City Park, beneath splendorous oak trees, resides the celebrated NOMA – or the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Central Business District hosts the massive Contemporary Arts Center, right across the street from the distinguished Ogden Museum of Southern Art. On the other end of the spectrum, curious-minded travellers can visit the tiny but extraordinary Backstreet Cultural Museum, dedicated to the culture of the Treme (the nation’s first and oldest African American neighbourhood), and the beautiful House of Dance and Feathers, celebrating the city’s Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure clubs, and skull-and-bone gangs.