New Orleans Tours for First and Repeat Trips
A first-time visitor and a returning one want different things from a New Orleans tour, and mixing them up wastes the most expensive hours of a trip. The first visit rewards the famous anchors. The second is the time for the specialist tours that the anchors crowd out.
First visit: the five anchors
Steamboat Natchez. The sternwheeler leaves the Toulouse Street Wharf daily, with a daytime sightseeing cruise, a dinner jazz sailing and a Sunday brunch. Daytime listings show about $43.50 for adults and $21 for children, while lunch and brunch sailings cost more. The Steamboat Natchez site has the current schedule.
National WWII Museum. Admission is tiered: from about $37 for an adult, $34 for a senior and $27 for a student or military visitor, with film theaters and guided packages added on top. The campus is open 9:00 to 17:00 daily, and the ticket options page shows what each tier includes.
The Cabildo and Presbytère. These two Louisiana State Museum buildings flank St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square. The 1799 Cabildo is where the Louisiana Purchase transfer was signed in 1803, and the Presbytère carries the Mardi Gras exhibition.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Entry is by licensed guided tour only. Tours leave from the Basin Street Station visitor centre at 501 Basin Street roughly every 15 minutes between 9:00 and 15:45, last about 45 minutes, and cost about $25 to $33 depending on the seller. The Catholic Cemeteries listing is the official source.
A swamp tour. Jean Lafitte pontoon tours cost about $29 to $35 if you drive to the dock and about $56 to $65 with hotel pickup. You can browse swamp tours on Viator to compare departure points.
Return visit: the specialist tours
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The Garden District cemetery reopened on 1 October 2026 for guided visits only. The Preservation Resource Center runs about six morning sessions a day for groups of 16 or fewer, each lasting 75 to 90 minutes, and bookings go through prcno.org .
Mardi Gras World. Blaine Kern Studios’ 300,000-square-foot warehouse shows artisans sculpting and painting floats for the next Carnival. It is open daily from 9:00 and is worth a stop for the craft rather than the spectacle.
Sazerac House. An interactive museum on the cocktail’s origins, with Peychaud’s Bitters history and tastings.
Whitney Plantation. Whitney is a museum of slavery about an hour west of the city, centred on the lives of the enslaved. Visitors see the Antioch Baptist Church, preserved cypress cabins and the Wall of Honor. It is open 9:30 to 16:30 with last entry at 15:00 and is closed on Tuesdays, so plan around that and book ahead through whitneyplantation.org .
Matching tour to trip length
With two days, take the Natchez and one museum. With four, add the cemetery tour and a swamp trip. A week lets you spread these over mornings and keep afternoons free for the heat. Everything above sells out faster during Carnival (opening 6 January, with Mardi Gras on 9 February 2027) and the April festivals.
Tip
Book the guided cemetery slot and the museum entry first, since both have limited capacity, then fit river and swamp time around them. The streetcar at $1.25 reaches several of the sites above, and the 4-day itinerary shows how to sequence them.