Counting your ducats carefully? In the birthplace of jazz you can find ready entertainment for a song. They don’t call Mardi Gras “The Greatest Free Show on Earth” or New Orleans “The Big Easy” for nothing. Although, nothing (or nearly) is what you pay for some great times.
Throw out the calculator; here’s the sum of N.O. attractions that add up to incredible bargains. The entertainment is priceless.
Visitor Info
Drop by the N.O. Convention and Visitors Bureau Visitor Information Center, 529 St. Ann Street in the French Quarter 504.566.5031 or 2020 St. Charles Ave. 1-800-503-NOLA (6652). Find out what’s going on in the city and how to get around with brochures like
The New Orleans Official Visitors Guide
French Quarter Walking and City Driving Tour
Other publications available at the NOMCVB Web site include:
Bargain Transportation
The Big Easy is a way of life that includes getting around without blowing your budget. The colorful public transportation is cheap, efficient, and simple. A no-brainer.
Airport Service
Think the $10 Airport Shuttle (already a deal) is the best you can do from the airport? Nope. For $1.50 the Airport Bus will get you from the terminal to Tulane Avenue. It departs every 10 minutes from 6-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. and every 23 minutes otherwis e. Operating hours 6 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
CITY TRANSPORT
VisiTour Passes are one of N.O.’s great bargains. $5 for 1 day, $12 for 3 days buys unlimited rides on historic Streetcars, including the Vieux Carré Shuttle, the Riverfront and St. Charles Streetcars and all bus lines in Orleans Parish. The foolproof streetcar and bus line map makes it easy to get around. We’re Big on Easy.
Get passes at the Jackson Square kiosk beside Café du Monde or at the Postal Emporium, 1000 Bourbon St., 504.525.6651. Passes also at Riverwalk and Jax Brewery VisiTour booths.
St. Charles Streetcar
Without the VisiTour Pass, it’s still just $1.25 to ride the 13-mile route in a national historic landmark. Streetcars have rumbled along St. Charles Avenue for over 160 years.
With a pass, you can hop off along the route and see the Central Business and Arts Districts, the architecture and haunting sights of the Garden District, and travel to Uptown’s Audubon Park & Zoo, for practically nothing.
FESTIVAL FEVER
Every month in the Crescent City, you’ll find events where the fun (and often the music and art viewing) is free, like the French Quarter Festival in April and the Satchmo Summer Fest, usually in August. In December, the holiday celebrations include mega freebies: concerts, cooking demonstrations by master chefs, holiday home tours, neighborhood light displays, and more.
Check the calendar at www.neworleanscvb.com for some great stuff. There’s Mardi Gras, of course, and the Magazine Street Fest, Gumbo Fest, Art for Art’s Sake, Fire & Ice.... . The list is long and the fun is free.
French Quarter
Aside from Mardi Gras, the French Quarter itself is the best free show in town:
Free French Quarter Guided Tour A National Historic Landmark, the French Quarter falls under the aegis of the National Park Service, so the nice park rangers lead a daily tour for exactly 25 people at 9:30 a.m. Get there at 9 a.m. to get a place. One ticket per person, no absentee pick-ups. 419 Decatur.
Included on the VisiTour Pass, the Vieux Carré Shuttle route lies through the French Quarter, down river to the Faubourg Marigny (full of Caribbean colors and Creole architecture) and upriver to the Central Business & Arts District. Just $1.25.
Prowl the French Market’s seven buildings from the Bazaar and the Red Stores to the Flea Market for souvenir bargains in local products, tee-shirts, jewelry, masks, and assorted oddities. Free
Window shop along Royal, Chartres, Bourbon, and the narrow French Quarter streets for the beautiful to the bizarre: eccentric wares, strange cards, posters, clothes, voodoo options, jewelry, and costumes. Lots to look at: exceptional antiques and a wide variety of art galleries.
Stroll around Jackson Square and look over the artists’ shoulders as they sketch and paint; enjoy the street musicians and dancers, and mock the mimes. At the Café du Monde, $2.50 buys café au lait, beignets, and a window onto the heart of the Vieux Carré with its thronging crowds. |
The real magic of New Orleans isn’t for sale.
It’s absolutely free. |
See the Spanish-inspired architecture of St. Louis Cathedral free. (Many concerts there are also free.) Former Faulkner residence, Faulkner House Books at 624 Pirate’s Alley offers a stunning selection of browseable books. The Pharmacy Museum houses a 19th-century apothecary shop at 514 Chartres, $1-$2.
For just $5 a pop, learn how the French and Spanish arrived and the Creoles lived. The Louisiana State Museum (751 Chartres) maintains five French Quarter sites --the Presbytère, Cabildo, Madame John’s Legacy, the 1850s House, and the U.S. Mint. ($4 each for tickets to two or more).
The changing exhibits at the Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal, are free. A tour through the charming Quarter residence and N.O. culture, history, and art costs only $4.
Other Historic sites and museums, like Hermann Grima, Beauregard-Keyes, Gallier House, and the Old Ursuline Convent only charge $4-$6 to tour.
River Walking Stroll along Moonwalk or through some of the 13 acres of magnolia - landscaped Woldenberg Park. Worth a look: the vista in and from Spanish Plaza with its refreshing fountain, pretty mosaics, and cinematic view of the Mississippi. Window-shop upscale emporia at Riverwalk, Jax Brewery and Canal Place.
Board the free ferry to Algiers’ Vantage Point at Riverwalk landing. At twilight, the 45-minute round-trip cruise is spectacular. The panoramic view of the Vieux Carré from across the river is worth the expedition any time of day.
Lucky Dog The bottomfeeder’s delight: “A piece of bread, a hunk of meat, and all the mustard you can eat.” That’s what you get for $4.25, and it’s about what you pay for half a muffuletta at Central Grocery, but you’ve got to love the concept. “Don’t be a meanie; buy a weenie.”
Music? There’s something beyond the street musicians, frequent festivals, and free concerts you can always count on: a measly $5 admits you to the performances of jazz legends at Preservation Hall. Starts 8:30 p.m., 726 St. Peter St.
Margaritaville, 1104 Decatur St., plays live music all day and into the night without a cover, so you’re free to waste the day away.
Graveyard Shift
See the statuary in the famed Cities of the Dead for free. Marie Laveau spends her afterlife at St. Louis Cemetery #1 at St. Louis & Basin, just outside the French Quarter. Anne Rice once staged her own funeral at Lafayette Cemetery, where her vampire, Lestat, broods through his unlife in the Garden District at Prytania & Washington.
Check the cemetery hours before you go; they open late and close early.
Metairie Cemetery, just west of City Park, provides free audiocassette tours of the grounds that hold the remains of Confederate soldiers and jazz great Louis Prima.
CENTRAL BUSINESS & ARTS DISTRICT (CBD)
The SoHo of the South, the area on the Uptown side of Canal, from St. Charles to the river, is a trove of free and lowcost entertainment and the heart of the arts in N.O. Get the lay of the land with a visit to the Preservation Resource Center at 923 Tchoupitoulas in the Central Business District. Concise, informative vignettes cover the highlights of each historic neighborhood. Great free map with lots of pictures.
Bonus: Hands-on course in N.O. architecture using scale models of Creole and raised cottages and a shotgun house.
The stunning and cavernous Contemporary Arts Center at 900 Camp Street houses changing art exhibits. Free on Thursdays, and just $3-$5 otherwise.
The main arts thoroughfare, Julia Street, is dotted with galleries like Simonne Stern and Arthur Roger. While you’re gallery hopping,
Check out the Thirteen Sisters, a collection of 19th-century row houses in the 600 block of Julia Street.
New Orleans School of Glassworks and Printmaking Studio, 727 Magazine Street, offers free demonstrations of glassblowing and other crafts.
STREET SAVVY
Hop the Magazine Street bus to explore an area so cool, only Greenwich Village could give it a run in a hipper-than-thou contest. (The street name comes from French magasin, for “shop.”) So, window shop, and you’ll see just about every trendy item around along Magazine’s six miles of art galleries (15 and counting), funky clothes, vintage accessories, wild costumes, wigs, and masks, and beaucoup antiques (over 80 shops of collectibles), used and original jewelry, bookstores, interesting restaurants. Watch pottery making as Casey Willia ms throws clay in his shop at 3919 Magazine.
AUDUBON PARK
Known for its moss-hung oaks, ponds, and laid-back ambiance, Audubon Park lies just before Magazine Street meets the river.
Stroll, run, or bike along the Avenue of Oaks or hang out like the mo ss and picnic. Bring stale bread to feed the ducks and turtles. If you’ve got a bike, a great path runs for miles atop the levee, starting just to the right of the Zoo entrance. All gratifyingly gratis. |
ST. CHARLES & GARDEN DISTRICT
Walk through Audubon Park from Magazine to St. Charles. At the park entrance, take the Streetcar back to the French Quarter. The 13-mile ride passes a stunning assortment of Creole, Greek Revival and Victorian architectural fantasies.
In the Garden District, a free National Historic Landmark, use your self-guided tour to check out historic mansions along the charming streets lined with oaks and oleanders. Anne Rice fans often cluster outside her residence at 1239 First St., home of the fictional Mayfair witches.
MID-CITY
On the Hoof: Just one buck buys heart-pounding excitement at the Fair Grounds Race Course, 1751 Gentilly Blvd.
Park It: Near the race track, City Park at picturesque Bayou St. John holds 1,500 acres of activities. Some cost, some don’t, but the prices are low. Freebies include viewing the world’s largest live oak stand and meandering along miles of scenic trails dotted with fountains.
At City Park:
Day fishing pass: $2
Botanical Garden: $2-$5
N.O. Museum of Art: $3-$6
Priceless Swamp & Bayou Tour
Take a walk on the wild side at the Barataria Preserve in Jean Lafitte National Park. No charge except the one you get out of 8 miles of boardwalk and 20 miles of waterways set amid 20,000 acres of swamp, marsh, and old-growth cypress. Those nice people at the park service conduct a free daily tour at 1:30. See ’gators, ibises, herons, and swamp flora and fauna.
Also: periodic moonlight strolls; morning and moonlight canoe treks; birdwatching tours; and a variety of activities. All absolutely gratis. Check www.nps.gov/jela or call 504.589.2330, ext. 10 for schedule and directions. Public bus transportation from downtown N.O.
HAPPY MEALS
Lest we forget, some of the best bargains are happy hours, where the drinks are ch eap and the food free. They’re all over town. A few examples of the many possibilities: no cover charge, free oysters, red beans, karaoke, and the cheapest draft we could find:
The City that Care Forgot remembers its traditions, one of which is red beans and rice on Mondays. Donna’s, 800 N. Rampart St. (a venue for some of the best young brass bands here or anywhere), dishes them out for free during the Monday all-star jam, although the barbecue is worth forking over a few dinero.
For 25 years, Igor’s bar & grill sidewalk café-cumlaundromat at 2133 St. Charles Ave., has ladled out the complete proteins on Monday, which was also was hday, lest the connection be lost there.
Tipitina’s, 501 Napoleon, does free beans and rice Sunday nights 5-9 with Cajun music.
At Check Point Charlie, 501 Esplanade, a bar and grill so casual, locals use it as a second living room, there’s rarely a cover charge for the daily live music. Loud, bright, and open 24 hours. Thanks to the on-premises laundromat, you can drink while you dry.
Le Bon Temps Roulé (possibly the best juke box in town), 4801 Magazine, serves free oysters on Fridays from 7 to 10 p.m.
Described by one wag as a karaoke bar on steroids, Cat’s Meow, 701 Bourbon offers three-for-one drink specials on practically all drinks every day. And, hey, the karaoke is free. Bruce Willis stopped in one night. T.J. Quills, 7600 Maple St., is quiet in the early evenings, but rocks late night ‘til dawn. Cheap nightly specials include Tuesday’s $.25 drafts and Wednesday’s 22 oz. drinks when more costs less.
Online and in the Times Picayune and Gambit newspapers you’ll find lots of food and drink bargains in bars, cafés, and restaurants.
FREEWHEELING NEW ORLEANS
In the end (which this is), New Orleans isn’t about what you can buy or how much things cost.
It’s about lingering over good times and good company. This is the City that Care Forgot because we always remember that the point of life is living it. And living it up.
That’s the real magic, and it isn’t for sale. It’s absolutely free.
Written by New Orleans native Lisl M. Spangenberg, a featured contributor to national magazines, a copywriter for ad agencies and Internet sites, and the author of Timeless Traditions, a couple’s guide to wedding traditions around the world |
