On your first full day in New Orleans, we recommend going on a food and/or history tour. This gives you an overview of the city and gives you an opportunity to get additional recommendations from a local.
We recommend the Culinary Backstreets tour. Though an expensive $150 per person, it is more than five hours long as a small group and worth it. It leisurely winds through the major neighborhoods. You’ll see the French Market, Frenchman Street, the Treme neighborhood, and Congo Square. You’ll learn about the history of the city, the hauntings, and enjoy enough classic New Orleans food to fill you up. Our tour guide also took us to see part of a Kermit Ruffins jazz performance at Bamboula’s on Frenchman Street and made a brief stop at Treme’s Petit Jazz Museum. Most tours will likely include the French Market and nearby Central Grocery, but if not, go early and taste beignets and Muffalettas.
This tour ends mid-afternoon, enough time to go out to dinner. We recommend Bacchanal Wine. From where the tour ends, we took a bus down Saint Claude Avenue, and walked a few blocks. It has a lovely small plate menu and beer and wine list. In the market, you build your own meat and cheese plate. They do the rest and deliver it to your table. Much of the seating is outside, and music plays on a stage often. It is a great place to hang out.
If you’re looking for great live music at a locals hangout, wrap up the night at Buffa’s. They have great burgers and a relaxed atmosphere. A variety of jazz bands play nightly from Wednesday through Monday.
You’ll notice we didn’t recommend a place on Bourbon Street, where the prices are high and the crowds are intense. It’s worth passing through for a peek, but we generally avoided it.
We also don’t recommend lodging in the French Quarter for noise reasons. We stayed at the Pelham Hotel. It was clean, comfortable, and in a great location. The neighborhood has its own great restaurants nearby and amenities. It also is a short walk to multiple trolley lines.