City Guide

New Orleans in a long weekend: music, food, and the French Quarter

Three to four days in New Orleans: the music clubs, the food, and how to do the city beyond Bourbon Street.

By the Dayfari editors · 2026-09-28 · New Orleans, USA

New Orleans is America's most distinctive city: the birthplace of jazz, the Creole and Cajun food, the French Quarter's beautiful decay. It's a city built for long weekends: compact, walkable, and organized around pleasure.

Bourbon Street is the tourist version; the real city is one street over. Here's the plan.

Day one: the French Quarter (properly)

Start at Jackson Square: the cathedral, the artists, the river. Royal Street for the galleries and antique shops (skip Bourbon in the daytime; it's sad). The French Market for beignets at Cafe du Monde (the line moves fast).

Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Evening: Frenchmen Street, not Bourbon. The music clubs (Snug Harbor, d.b.a., the Spotted Cat) have live jazz, brass bands, and funk every night. This is the New Orleans that matters: the music is the reason the city exists.

Day two: the Garden District and the food

Take the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District: the mansions, the oak trees, the Lafayette Cemetery. Magazine Street for the shops.

Photo: MusikAnimal · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Afternoon: the food tour (self-guided works). Po'boys, gumbo, jambalaya, muffuletta: the city's cuisine is America's best regional food. Commander's Palace for the classic splurge (the jazz brunch is legendary). Evening: more music. There's always more music.

Day three: Tremé, the river, and the swamp

Tremé (the oldest Black neighborhood in America) and the Backstreet Cultural Museum for the Mardi Gras Indian culture. The National WWII Museum (genuinely one of America's best museums) if you have half a day.

Photo: Clark Mills · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Alternatively: a swamp tour (the bayous, the gators, the weird beauty). Evening: check what's on. The city's concert calendar is year-round, and festival season (Jazz Fest in spring especially) is worth timing a trip around. Our New Orleans pages track the listings.