Mid-range · 6-hour walk · New Orleans
The Garden District and Magazine Street in six hours
The streetcar up St Charles, the antebellum houses, the cemetery and six miles of shopfronts back.
The three-hour route is the French Quarter. The Garden District is what the Americans built when the Creoles would not sell them land downtown, and it is a different city — wide lots, oaks, and houses from the 1840s cotton money. Get there on the St Charles streetcar, which has run since 1835 and is the oldest continuously operating street railway in the world.
The route, stop by stop
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St Charles Streetcar
Olive green 1923 Perley Thomas cars with wooden seats and no air conditioning. Exact change or a Jazzy Pass; ride it up and walk back.
35 min here Walk here → -
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1
Arrive by tram from the previous stop
Above-ground tombs from 1833, in a city where the water table makes burial impractical. Reopened after restoration; check the gate hours before you plan around it.
40 min here Walk here → -
Garden District
Greek revival and Italianate mansions on oak-lined blocks, most of them still houses. Prytania and First are the two streets to walk.
45 min here Walk here → -
Commander's Palace
Turquoise and white since 1893, and the kitchen that launched Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse. Jacket preferred at dinner; the weekday lunch with 25-cent martinis is the institution.
45 min here Walk here → -
Magazine Street
Six miles of independent shops, bars and restaurants running back towards downtown. The stretch between Washington and Jackson is the densest.
60 min here Walk here → -
Audubon Park
Arrive by tram from the previous stop
Three hundred and fifty acres laid out by Olmsted's firm, with a live oak alley and a lagoon, between the avenue and the river.
30 min here Walk here →
More in New Orleans
Every walking route in New Orleans, or the full New Orleans guide for where to stay and what a day costs.