3 Days of Good Times in New Orleans

You can hear New Orleans before you can see it: a brass band two blocks over, a streetcar rumbling up St. Charles Avenue, neighbors and strangers greeting each other with genuine warmth. It's a city that announces itself and immediately welcomes you to be a part of it.

One of the best ways to experience New Orleans is to explore the neighborhoods that make it the cultural jewel it is. So where should you start?

Day 1: The French Quarter

Start early at Café du Monde with beignets piled high with powdered sugar and a café au lait. If you prefer a proper sit-down breakfast, Brennan's has been serving eggs in nearly every configuration imaginable for generations.

Just steps away, explore Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, open daily for self-guided visits. The two buildings flanking it — the Cabildo and the Presbytère — are both Louisiana State Museums, with permanent exhibits on Mardi Gras and local history that explain a lot about New Orleans’ culture and architecture.

Sit down for a Pimm’s Cup and muffaletta at Napoleon House, or get one to go from the riverfront Central Grocery, where a bench overlooking ships passing through the Mississippi makes for a pretty memorable dining room.

The neighborhood takes on more significance when you spend the afternoon with a guide. You’ll find literary, cemetery, ghost, carriage, bike, and LGBTQ history tours throughout the French Quarter. In the early evening, Preservation Hall opens its doors for a set of traditional jazz in a room with no amplification or frills, but all the charm in the world.

Cocktail hour begins at Pat O'Brien's, where the Hurricane has been poured for decades. Dinner is a choice among the city's oldest Creole restaurants — Antoine's, Galatoire's or Arnaud's — each with a history lesson attached. Afterward, walk to Woldenberg Park to catch the breeze off the water or push on to Frenchmen Street, where the music runs late.

Day 2: Uptown & the Garden District

Grab shrimp and grits at Surrey's Café & Juice Bar or a sweet potato waffle from Slim Goodies Diner. Want to linger? Savor hash with duck confit at Atchafalaya, then catch the streetcar up St. Charles Avenue and take in the mansions under the oaks. No two houses match, which is half the pleasure. If you want more context behind the architecture, Garden District tours run on foot or by bike, scooter and bus.

Magazine Street handles the rest of the day. Lunch options run from banh mi at Banh Mi Boys to grain bowls at The Daily Beet, crawfish and cheese empanadas at Empanola, or red beans and rice at Joey K's. Coffee from French Truck keeps the afternoon going, and in warm months a sno-ball from Imperial Woodpecker is close to mandatory. The shopping stretches for miles.

For dinner, the range is wide: Indian at Saffron, Italian at San Lorenzo, Cajun-Creole at Brigtsen's or Commander's Palace, or Krispy Kreme bread pudding at Boucherie. Close the night with a show at Tipitina's or the Maple Leaf Bar.

Day 3: Tremé, the Marigny & Bywater

Begin in Tremé, the oldest historically Black neighborhood in the country, with coffee at Backatown Coffee Parlour and a visit to the Backstreet Cultural Museum, home to a remarkable collection of Black Masking Indian suits. Lunch is Creole and classic at Lil' Dizzy's or Dooky Chase's, where fried chicken, gumbo, greens and bread pudding keep coming back.

Walk, drive or hop on a Blue Bike down Esplanade Avenue toward the river, into the Marigny and Bywater. JAMNOLA is an interactive art space built around the city's music and folklore, and StudioBE — artist Brandan "B-mike" Odums' warehouse gallery — fills an enormous space with large-scale murals and mixed media by Black artists. Crescent Park offers a different angle on the Mississippi across 20 acres, best at sunset. Dinner in the Bywater could mean The Elysian Bar, N7, Paladar 511 or the Michelin-starred Saint-Germain.

What else is there to do in New Orleans?

City Park alone could fill a full day, with the New Orleans Museum of Art, Storyland, swan boat rentals on Big Lake, and the Sydney & Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. A streetcar ride farther Uptown to Oak Street unlocks under-the-radar dining and shopping that locals love, or spend an afternoon exploring the shops and dining along historic Bayou Road, often cited as the oldest street in New Orleans.

Plan your next getaway in New Orleans.