6 Days in New Orleans: First-Timer Itinerary

Six days takes the French Quarter, WWII Museum, Garden District, Treme, and food-crawl spine from the 5-day version and adds a full day for Mardi Gras culture and a proper Magazine Street shopping run, plus room to actually rest. Tighter trip? Drop to 4 or 5 days . Have a full week? Step up to the 7-day version .

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
Day 6 Mardi Gras culture, Magazine Street, rest, 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
  • 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 Prytania Street’s mansions, or book the guided walking tour above if you want the history explained rather than guessed at
  • Late afternoon: the Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise booked above, from $43.50 adult

Day 4: Treme And Jazz History

Day 5: Creole Food Crawl, Marigny, Bywater

  • Morning: the French Market for produce, spices, and local goods
  • Gumbo ($8.50-17.50), jambalaya ($12-16.50), and a second po’boy round
  • Afternoon: wander Marigny and Bywater, murals and small galleries at a slow pace

Day 6: Mardi Gras Culture, Shopping, Rest

  • Morning: Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World near the Convention Center, a working float den where you can see parade floats built between seasons, check current tour times and prices before you go
  • Recall the parade geography from Day 1: the main Mardi Gras routes run Uptown along St. Charles Avenue and on Canal Street, not through Bourbon Street or the French Quarter interior, off-limits to major parades since a 1970s narrow-street safety ruling
  • Afternoon: work further down Magazine Street than Day 3 covered, six miles of boutiques total, more than one visit rewards
  • Evening: a spa hour or a slow dinner, six days in is when the pace should finally ease off rather than push harder

Do Mardi Gras parades roll through the French Quarter? No, and this trips up more first-time planners than almost any other New Orleans fact. The major krewe parades run Uptown along St. Charles Avenue and on Canal Street; the Quarter’s narrow streets have been off the parade route since the 1970s. Bourbon Street during Carnival is street-party crowding, not parade-route crowding, a real distinction if you’re picking where to stand.

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

Six days is where the trip stops being a race and starts being an actual stay: you’ve done the museum, the cemetery, the mansions, the food, and finally a day to just wander Magazine Street without a schedule pushing you along. One more day to add a slower final morning and City Park? The 7-day version closes out this exact spine.