5 Days in New Orleans: First-Timer Itinerary

Five days takes the French Quarter, WWII Museum, Garden District, and Treme spine from the 4-day version and adds a full day built entirely around Creole food and the Marigny and Bywater arts scene. Tighter trip? Drop to 3 or 4 days . More time? Step up to 6 or 7 days .

Book these before you go

Day Focus
Day 1 French Quarter, Jackson Square, Preservation Hall
Day 2 WWII Museum, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
Day 3 Garden District, streetcar, Steamboat Natchez
Day 4 Treme, jazz history, Frenchmen Street
Day 5 Creole food crawl, Marigny, Bywater, departure

Day 1: The French Quarter

  • Cafe du Monde from 7:15am (cash only), beignets and cafe au lait, $3.60-5.43 for three, closed by 11pm most nights and midnight Friday-Saturday
  • Jackson Square (free) and St. Louis Cathedral (free, 9:30am-4pm, last entry 3:45pm)
  • Royal Street’s galleries versus Bourbon Street’s bars
  • Lunch: a po’boy “dressed,” $8.50-15
  • Evening: Preservation Hall, door-only, no reservations exist, $15-20 standing or $35-50 reserved, cash only, arrive 30-45 minutes early. Check tonight’s lineup at preservationhall.com

Day 2: WWII Museum And The Cemetery

Day 3: Garden District And The Streetcar

  • Ride the St. Charles Streetcar ($1.25, or a $3 day Jazzy Pass) into the Garden District
  • Walk the mansions along Prytania Street, or book the guided walking tour above if you want the history explained rather than guessed at
  • Lunch and a browse along Magazine Street
  • Late afternoon: the Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise booked above, from $43.50 adult

Day 4: Treme And Jazz History

  • Morning: Treme, the oldest African-American neighborhood in the US, and the Backstreet Cultural Museum
  • Walk Louis Armstrong Park, then a ranger-led talk at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
  • Evening: dinner and a set on Frenchmen Street

Day 5: Creole Food Crawl, Marigny, Bywater

  • Morning: the French Market, a centuries-old outdoor market for produce, spices, and local goods
  • Work through the core Creole dishes properly this time: gumbo ($8.50-17.50), jambalaya ($12-16.50), and a second po’boy if the first one didn’t convince you
  • Afternoon: wander Marigny and Bywater, more residential and arts-focused than the Quarter, with murals and small galleries worth a slow walk rather than a checklist
  • Cajun food belongs to a different trip entirely, Acadiana around Lafayette, roughly two hours west, is its own cuisine, not a New Orleans side dish

Is Cajun food the same as New Orleans food? No. New Orleans’ city cooking is Creole, a French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean urban tradition built on gumbo, jambalaya, and po’boys. Cajun cuisine, boudin, cracklins, and zydeco culture, belongs to the rural Acadiana region around Lafayette, roughly two hours away, and deserves its own trip rather than getting folded into “New Orleans food” as a single idea.

  • Farewell dinner in the Marigny or the Quarter, then depart via Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), budget 25-30 minutes and $35-55 for a rideshare

Five days is enough to stop treating New Orleans as a sightseeing checklist and start treating it as a food and music city that happens to also have a cathedral and a cemetery. Want a Mardi Gras culture day and a slower final morning added on? The 6-day and 7-day versions build straight on this spine.