Two days in New Orleans hitting the essential experiences: Café Du Monde beignets at sunrise, the French Quarter architecture and history, a muffuletta from Central Grocery, and Frenchmen Street on Saturday night for live jazz in a neighborhood where the locals actually go. This itinerary skips Bourbon Street for a more authentic version of the same city.
Start at Café Du Monde before the city wakes up. Work through the French Quarter's architecture and history, then cross Esplanade Avenue into the Marigny for the evening.
Open 24 hours, seven days a week since 1862. The beignets arrive in orders of three, buried under powdered sugar — wear dark clothes. The café au lait (half coffee, half hot milk) is the correct accompaniment. The outdoor seating on Decatur Street with a view of Jackson Square is one of the great breakfast settings in American travel. Best before 8am when lines form.
Jackson Square is the ceremonial heart of New Orleans — the cathedral, the Pontalba Buildings (oldest apartment buildings in the US, built 1849), and the statue of Andrew Jackson surrounded by street performers, tarot readers, and artists. St. Louis Cathedral is open for self-guided visits most mornings. The Cabildo and Presbytère museums flanking the cathedral have the city's best history collections.
The muffuletta was invented here in 1906 — a round Sicilian sesame roll loaded with cured meats and the olive salad that makes it distinct from any other sandwich. Central Grocery at 923 Decatur has the original recipe. Order a half ($11), find a bench near the river, and eat it there. The store is also worth browsing: Italian imports, canned goods, and olive preparations that have been on the same shelves for decades.
The French Quarter's ironwork balconies, courtyard gardens, and Creole townhouses are the most distinctive urban architecture in North America — the city looks like nowhere else. Walk Royal Street (antiques and galleries, more dignified than Bourbon), then the residential blocks of Dauphine and Burgundy where the buildings are unrestored and the courtyards are glimpsable through gates. The Lower Quarter below St. Ann is quieter and more photogenic than the upper blocks.
Frenchmen Street in the Marigny neighborhood is where New Orleans' actual music community plays — three blocks with half a dozen clubs, no cover at most of them, and live music starting around 9pm. The Spotted Cat Music Club is the most atmospheric; d.b.a. has the best sound system; Snug Harbor is the room for serious modern jazz (cover charge). Walk the strip between sets, buy a drink at each stop, and stay as long as the music holds you.
Cross Magazine Street into the Garden District — the antebellum mansions, Lafayette Cemetery, and Commander's Palace, then Magazine Street back toward downtown.
New Orleans buries above ground — the water table makes below-ground burial impractical. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in the Garden District is the most accessible of the city's famous above-ground cemeteries: brick-walled, shaded by oak trees, with elaborate Victorian-era family tombs. Free, self-guided. Anne Rice's fictional vampire Lestat de Lioncourt is "buried" here in the context of her novels. Open weekdays 7am–3pm, weekends 7am–noon.
The St. Charles line is the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world (1835). Board downtown and ride it uptown — the 45-minute trip passes the Garden District mansions, Tulane and Loyola universities, and Audubon Park. A $1.25 fare is one of the best deals in tourism. Sit on the right side heading uptown for the best mansion views.
Commander's Palace has been the standard-bearer for upscale Creole cuisine since 1893. The Saturday and Sunday jazz brunch ($75/person, reservations required) is the signature experience — live jazz at the table, turtle soup, and the bread pudding soufflé. The restaurant launched the careers of Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme. Dress code enforced; no shorts or tank tops.
Magazine Street runs six miles from the CBD to Audubon Park — the stretch between Napoleon and Henry Clay avenues is the best for independent shopping. Antique shops, gallery spaces, clothing boutiques, and the kind of home goods stores that haven't been absorbed into chains. The street narrows and the houses get older and more interesting the further uptown you go.
New Orleans snowballs are not shaved ice — the ice is ground finer, the syrup penetrates throughout rather than pooling at the bottom, and the flavor options run to over 100 (cream of nectar, wedding cake, spearmint). Hansen's Sno-Bliz at 4801 Tchoupitoulas (open since 1939) is the most legendary stand. Plum Street Snoballs is the Garden District option. Snowballs are a summer thing but shops open March through October.
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