New Orleans itinerary for first-timers

The heart of the French Quarter: St. Louis Cathedral above the square, artists and musicians along its railings, and the long arcades of the French Market down by the river. A local guide zigzags through the Quarter from Canal Street, past the balconied streets in between.

• St. Louis Cathedral
• Jackson Square
• French Market
• Royal Street

Come early, before the day-trippers, when the square is quiet and the light on the cathedral is soft.

Walk the most famous street in New Orleans while it is still calm and you can look at the buildings. The guide explains how the street got its name and the stories of its music legends and old houses, from Iberville Street down to the quieter residential end.

• Musical Legends Park
• Historic Creole townhouses
• The quiet lower end

Just past the end of the French Quarter, Frenchmen Street's music clubs are where many locals go to hear live jazz and brass bands. Around it, the Marigny's colourful Creole cottages make a pleasant walk before the music starts.

• Live music clubs
• Creole cottages
• Washington Square

The music gets going after dark; walk the side streets while it is still light.

The green streetcars on St. Charles Avenue are part of the trip, not just a way to get there. The line runs from the Central Business District round Lee Circle and up the oak-lined avenue past the mansions of the Garden District.

• Lee Circle
• St. Charles Avenue mansions
• Live oaks

For the Garden District, get off around Washington Avenue, about 20 minutes from downtown.

The 19th-century mansions of the Americans who settled Uptown stand behind iron fences and old oaks. Lafayette Cemetery's above-ground tombs show one of the city's most distinctive traditions.

• Lafayette Cemetery No. 1
• Antebellum mansions
• Prytania Street

A few blocks from the Garden District, Magazine Street runs for miles with independent shops, galleries, cafés and old market buildings. Walk the stretch along the Garden District and the Irish Channel towards the Lower Garden District.

• Independent shops
• Irish Channel
• Lower Garden District

After dark Bourbon Street becomes the famous party street: neon, music from open doors and crowds walking with drinks. See it once, then slip away to the quieter streets of the Quarter.

• Neon and balconies
• Live music
• Royal Street nearby

One of the largest city parks in the country, with giant oaks, a sculpture garden and the Botanical Garden's Japanese garden, conservatory and rose beds.

• Sculpture garden
• Botanical Garden
• Japanese garden
• Old oaks

The Canal streetcar's City Park line drops you at the park's entrance on Esplanade Avenue.

A riverfront park along the Mississippi leads to the Bywater, a neighbourhood of brightly painted shotgun houses, murals and artists' studios.

• Mississippi riverfront
• Shotgun houses
• Murals