One Week in New Orleans: Offbeat Itinerary
A full week takes the 6 day plan and adds one deliberately open day. What this itinerary still skips is the rental car and the day trips; River Road, the swamps and Baton Rouge all belong to New Orleans as a Louisiana base instead. Everything below stays inside the city.
| 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 |
| 6 | The Canal Street Ferry to Algiers Point, then the Warehouse Arts District |
| 7 | Flex day: whichever neighborhood earned a second visit |
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 over the walk-in alternatives
- Reserve Preservation Hall seats ahead of a specific set, twice if a week gives you the excuse
- Book the Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise for one of the week’s free evenings
- Compare French Quarter or Garden District hotel rates before committing to a week in one neighborhood
Day 1: French Quarter icons and the WWII Museum
Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral are free and calmest early. Cafe du Monde closes nightly and reopens at 7:15am, not a 24 hour spot despite the reputation. Give the National WWII Museum a genuine half day, $36 adult, a multi-building campus rather than one hall. Preservation Hall takes advance bookings through its own calendar and GetYourGuide for the evening; a week gives you room to book it twice.
Day 2: Garden District, a free sculpture garden, and a food hall
The St. Charles streetcar reaches the Garden District’s 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 stay open to independent walk-ins. NOMA and the free 11-acre Besthoff Sculpture Garden fill the afternoon; 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, the actual source of the brass-band sound Bourbon Street cover bands imitate. The Backstreet Cultural Museum , $25 adult, $20 local, senior or veteran, $15 ages 12 to 16, $10 under 12, free at 5 and under, documents Mardi Gras Indian suits and jazz funeral traditions. A Sunday second-line, if timing allows, 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 murals and its Creole cottages and shotgun houses. Music Box Village , open Friday 6 to 10pm and Saturday through Sunday 10am to 3pm, suggested donation $15 adult, $5 for kids 5 to 17, closes entirely without a listed event on its calendar.
Day 5: Uptown and Carrollton, past the Garden District
The St. Charles streetcar continues past the Garden District into Uptown and Carrollton, past Tulane and Loyola, to Audubon Park, free and considerably quieter than City Park. Carrollton’s Oak Street has a small run of restaurants with almost no tourist traffic.
Day 6: Algiers Point by ferry, then the Warehouse Arts District
The Canal Street Ferry crosses to Algiers Point for a few dollars and about 15 minutes, the best skyline view of the Quarter available from anywhere, before a quiet walk through the neighborhood’s historic cottages. Back across the river, the Warehouse and Arts District’s contemporary galleries are mostly free to browse.
Day 7: A flex day, on purpose
Seven days is long enough that something from the first six will have earned a repeat visit, whether that’s a second Frenchmen Street night, a slower lap of Magazine Street, or a return to Music Box Village if the first visit fell on a closed day. Use the morning for souvenir shopping away from the French Quarter’s marked-up gift shops, Freret Street and Oak Street both carry local makers at fairer prices. Reconfirm departure logistics the night before; MSY sits roughly 25 to 30 minutes from the Quarter under normal traffic, longer during any festival closure.
Is a full week too long for New Orleans without a car?
No, as long as the plan includes a genuine flex day. Six structured days plus one open day covers the French Quarter, Garden District, Treme, Bywater, Uptown and Algiers Point without ever needing a rental car; a seventh structured day would start repeating rather than adding.
Should the flex day be used for a day trip instead?
Only if the plan changes entirely. This itinerary stays in-city on purpose; River Road, the swamp tours and Baton Rouge each want a car and a full day of their own, covered separately in New Orleans as a Louisiana base , not squeezed into a seventh city day.
Leave Day 7 unplanned until Day 6 night. The neighborhood that gets a repeat visit is a better signal than anything decided before you land.