New Orleans Off Beaten Path: 5 Day Itinerary
Five days extends the 4 day plan with a day in Uptown and Carrollton, the university end of the St. Charles streetcar line that most Bywater-and-back itineraries never reach. Still car-free, still entirely inside the city. The 6 day plan adds a river crossing next.
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | French Quarter icons and the National WWII Museum |
| 2 | Garden District, City Park’s free sculpture garden, and a food hall dinner |
| 3 | Treme, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, and Frenchmen Street |
| 4 | Bywater and Marigny: a mural walk, Creole cottages, and Music Box Village |
| 5 | Uptown and Carrollton: Audubon Park and the Tulane end of the streetcar |
Book these before you go
- Reserve National WWII Museum tickets to skip the box office line
- Book a St Louis Cemetery No. 1 guided tour for the famous tomb rather than the walk-in alternatives
- Reserve Preservation Hall seats ahead of a specific set
- Book the Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise for a free evening on Day 1, 4 or 5
- Compare Garden District hotel rates if a quieter base than the Quarter suits five nights better
Day 1: French Quarter icons and the WWII Museum
Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral are free and calmest before mid-morning. Cafe du Monde nearby closes nightly and reopens at 7:15am, not a 24 hour operation. Give the National WWII Museum a genuine half day, $36 adult, a multi-building campus rather than a single hall. Preservation Hall takes advance bookings through its own calendar and GetYourGuide for the evening; reserve ahead or arrive 30 to 45 minutes early for general admission.
Day 2: Garden District, a free sculpture garden, and a food hall
The St. Charles streetcar runs into the Garden District for antebellum mansions along Prytania Street. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is closed to the public in 2026, viewable only from the gates on a guided tour; St Louis Cemetery No. 3 and Metairie Cemetery, both open to walk-ins, are the practical alternative. NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden fill the afternoon, the museum $18 to 23 by residency, the 11-acre sculpture garden free every day regardless. St Roch Market covers dinner at $10 to 18 a plate.
Day 3: Treme, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, and Frenchmen Street
Treme is the oldest African-American neighborhood in the US and the source of the brass-band sound Bourbon Street cover bands imitate. The Backstreet Cultural Museum charges $25 adult, $20 local, senior or veteran, $15 ages 12 to 16, $10 under 12, free at 5 and under, and covers Mardi Gras Indian suits and jazz funeral history in more depth than anywhere else in the city. A Sunday second-line, if the timing lines up, may pass through the neighborhood. Evening is the Frenchmen Art Market and a no-cover jazz set.
Day 4: Bywater and Marigny, a mural walk and a musical village
Piety, Chartres and Royal Streets carry Bywater’s rotating large-scale murals, free and unticketed, alongside the neighborhood’s Creole cottages and shotgun houses. Music Box Village on N. Rampart St, open Friday 6 to 10pm and Saturday through Sunday 10am to 3pm, suggested donation $15 adult, $5 for kids 5 to 17, closes entirely on dates without a listed event.
Day 5: Uptown and Carrollton, past the Garden District
Ride the St. Charles streetcar past the Garden District to its Uptown and Carrollton end, where the same 24/7 line runs through the university stretch of the city, Tulane and Loyola both a short walk from the tracks. Audubon Park, a genuinely large green space along the river, is free to walk and considerably less crowded than City Park. Carrollton’s Oak Street has a small run of local restaurants and coffee shops that see almost no tourist traffic, a useful lunch stop if the plan is to skip yet another French Quarter restaurant on day five.
Is Uptown worth a full day if you’ve already done Garden District?
Yes, for a different reason: Garden District is a walking tour of architecture, while Uptown and Carrollton are where the city’s university population actually lives, with a slower pace and a streetcar ride that’s worth taking end to end at least once.
Do you need a car by day five of a car-free trip?
No. The streetcar covers the entire Uptown extension from the same line used on Day 2, and everything else on this itinerary sits inside walking distance of a streetcar stop or a short rideshare.
Ride the St. Charles streetcar all the way to its Carrollton turnaround at least once, even without a specific stop planned; the ride itself, mansions to university storefronts, is the actual point of day five.