Things to do in New Orleans

New Orleans sits in southern Louisiana on a bend of the Mississippi River, wedged between the water and Lake Pontchartrain, with much of the city at or below sea level behind levees and pumps. It is not the state capital: that is Baton Rouge, about 130 km upriver.

Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) is roughly 18 km from the French Quarter, a 25 to 40 minute drive, with no train or metro link.

The city is organised into parishes rather than counties, and this page covers it at a glance: the French Quarter's grid of balconies and galleries, the oak-lined Garden District, Tremé and the Marigny's Frenchmen Street, the above-ground cemeteries and the riverfront. Each of those gets its own page below.

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Tours and activities in New Orleans

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