Free Things to do in New Orleans

Enjoy New Orleans even on an empty wallet with these free things to do in the city!

*Wander along Woldenberg Riverfront Park from Canal Street to the Moon Walk along the French Quarter and watch ships of all kinds ply the Mighty Mississippi. It’s cathartic, relaxing and really quite amazing. 

*Holocaust Memorial at Woldenburg Park 

*Walk through Crescent Park on the riverfront, with its stellar city views, accessed just past the French Market at Elysian Fields. You can go all the way to Bywater. 

*Window shop on Royal and Chartres streets for art, antiques and oddities. 

*Listen to the calliope steam organ that serenades from the deck of the steamboat Natchez when it’s docked on the Mississippi River in the French Quarter. 

*Join a second line parade, a homegrown celebration with music and dancing that happens most Sundays in neighborhoods around the city. 

*Hurricane Katrina Memorial 5056 Canal Street, former Charity Hospital cemetery and a potter’s field 

*Listen to great New Orleans bands during Wednesdays at the Square, a free 12-week concert series in Lafayette Square starting in March and running through summer or during Wednesdays on the Point in Algiers during June and July. 

*Hear more free music every Thursday at Jazz in the Park, with bands performing in Louis Armstrong Park in spring and fall. 

*Take a free tour of the Nola Brewing Company and dip into the local craft beer scene. Tours are Friday and Saturday afternoons. 

*Walk around the lake in City Park, where you just might sneak up on a dozing turtle or surprise a yellow-footed egret into flight. 

*Read the historic plaques that are scattered on noteworthy buildings and public art all over the city. 

*Relax on the banks of Bayou St. John and watch canoes and other non-motorized water crafts float along the bayou. 

*Spend some time walking around the Garden District and admiring the beautiful mansions and wrought iron fences and balconies. 

*Dance down Frenchmen Street any night of the week, where music fills the air from the many clubs that rock till the wee hours. 

*Access the Historic New Orleans Collection and learn about the history of the Crescent City. Visits and self-guided tours of the museum galleries are always free. 

*Slurp free oysters and music every Friday night at Le Bon Temps Roule on Magazine Street. 

*Feel thankful in the chapel in the back of St. Roch Cemetery, a shrine filled with ex-votos.  

*Visit Milton H. Latter Memorial Library, a New Orleans Public Library in a stately mansion on St. Charles Avenue. 

*Browse stalls of souvenirs and clever baubles at the French Market. 

*Take a tour of Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. 

*Listen to a New Orleans history talk with a park ranger from the French Quarter Visitor Center, part of the National Park Service. Tuesdays through Saturdays. 

*Head Uptown and find The Fly, a swathe of green space behind Audubon Zoo on the Mississippi River. Sunsets there are lovely. 

*Go upstairs at Arnaud’s for a tour of Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum. 

*Take a selfie with Fats Domino, Pete Fountain, or Al Hirt at Music Legends Park on Bourbon Street while enjoying some of the daily free concerts.  Music starts at 10 a.m. 

*Sit under century-old Live Oak trees in Audubon Park or City Park and admire the Spanish Moss that hangs down. 

*Wander Magazine Street, famous for its eclectic shops and cozy eateries.

Live Oak Tree in City Park