Beat the Crowds in New Orleans

“How you doin’, baby?” asks a waitress, and immediately, hopelessly, you’re wheels-up in love with New Orleans. It’s not just her words; it’s the lilt of them. The “how you doin’” delivered in praline-sweet octaves. Her “baby,” a tuck-you-in endearment, offered to a total stranger.

New Orleans! The look of the place beats the heart and widens the eye. What other American city can appear so timeless yet ever changing? New bike lanes and routes like the Lafitte Greenway—a 2.6-mile-long bike route from the French Quarter to City Park—appear. New restaurants and hotels fling open their doors on a regular basis. Expanding streetcar lines push out from Canal Street, the city’s sassy spine, into new 19th-century neighborhoods filling with 21st-century college grads. The result: an exuberant blur of banana fronds, brass bands, and bounce fueled by rising optimism and, maybe, a Sazerac or two.

The pace—the city’s Wednesdays are as busy as Fridays in other towns—will build an appetite. Luckily, no city loves food quite like New Orleans. It’s got fresh oysters—platters of them, brined from the Gulf, delivered every morning. Try the grilled drum or a bowl of Vietnamese pho. Or the alligator cheesecake. Or the shrimp and grits. Eat it all. You'll dance it off. No place can shimmy like New Orleans, either. Hear that? It’s a trumpet note hovering in the heavy, sultry air. There it is again. Is it a second line? Jam session? Party? It don’t matter, baby. It’s New Orleans, and it beckons. Here, an itinerary to discover its best of days:

Sunday Afternoon

You've landed. While Bourbon Street presses its Huge Ass Beers and Hurricanes on thirsty hordes, sample something more stimulating in the galleries of the Historic New Orleans Collection, with its artifacts of city history, or pay a call at the Cabildo Museum. Exhibits at the Presbytère tell the stories of Hurricane Katrina and Carnival in an equally colorful and absorbing manner.

Sunday Evening

Nab yourself a "go cup" on Esplanade Avenue. A Neptune’s Monsoon at Port of Call is hard to beat for watching twilight drip through live oaks on the neutral ground (the local term for a street median). Wander the Quarter toward St. Louis Cathedral and dog-leg up to Killer Poboys at Erin Rose for a reimagined take on a New Orleans classic.

Sunday Late

Head over to the Marigny for a different beat at All Ways Lounge and Theater. Sundays mean moving and shaking to swing music, plus free dance lessons from NOLA Jitterbugs for anyone join in.

Monday Morning

Grab some beignets at Café du Monde (they’re up 24 hours a day even if you’re not), find a bike and head downriver to Crescent Park; the city’s newest park is stretched out like a strand of green Mardi Gras beads along 1.4 miles of the Mississippi River. The views of city and river are well worth the trip, as is the park's locale: the Faubourg Marigny and Bywater are two neighborhoods dense with Creole cottages and bearded hipsters and are just right for a wander.

Monday Afternoon

Need a break? Grab a freshly squeezed juice at Satsuma in the Bywater, a local coffeehouse and juicer, and pedal up Esplanade Avenue, past the Edgar Degas House, to Bayou St. John and into City Park for a tour of the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. The park, with its trails and canopy of oak trees, is a little-known oasis in a part of the city many tourists never find. Reward your bicycling with more beignets and chicory coffee at Morning Call, a 24/7 outpost of a coffee stand that dates back more than 145 years in the park’s Casino Building.

Monday Night

Over the past few years, a burgeoning countercultural restaurant scene has parked itself along St. Claude Avenue, surrounded by contemporary art galleries and studios. Try Arabella for some no-frills pasta.

Monday Late

Wander over to Frenchmen Street for its sizzling music scene at clubs like Three Muses and the Spotted Cat. There’s even the Frenchmen Art Market that’s open until 1 a.m. Locals consider these exuberant Marigny blocks to be the heir to old Bourbon Street, without as many intoxicated tourists.

Tuesday Morning

Muster at the National WWII Museum. Its six-acre Warehouse District campus tells the story of the United States’ involvement in the 20th century’s most historic event. The museum’s exhibits—“Road to Berlin” and “Road to Tokyo”—are the must-dos here. Watch the movie experience Beyond All Boundaries before continuing through the rest of the museum. Narrated by Tom Hanks, the movie sets the stage for the interactive galleries that document the United States’ biggest battles. Look and linger—it's fascinating.

Tuesday Afternoon

Catch a ride Uptown on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar to Jackson Avenue and wander the Garden District, a historic neighborhood that is home to big white mansions and elegant “cottages” dating from the 19th century, when King Cotton and Queen Victoria ruled. The streets seem unruffled by time. (Psssst! Beyoncé’s house is on Harmony Street.) Following your ramble, reward yourself with chocolate, macarons, or maybe a gelato at Sucré, a NOLA-based confectioner.

Tuesday Evening

Belly up to crafted cocktails at French 75, the bar adjoining the famed Arnaud’s Restaurant, open since 1918. In New Orleans, bartenders are celebrities, and you’re in luck if Chris Hannah is behind the counter rattling shakers and swizzling sticks. The bar just won a coveted James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program. Spirited, indeed.

Tuesday Late

Strike out for the Joint, a rollicking Bywater bar and BBQ restaurant. Their motto, “Always Smokin’,” refers to both the plates of ribs and brisket and the zesty atmosphere, which has patrons spilling out onto the street to enjoy the weather and conversation.

Wednesday Morning

Start strong at District Donuts with Italian coffee and homemade donuts in the Lower Garden District. Then it’s a lap up and down the colonnaded shops on lower Magazine Street between Felicity and Jackson. Appartique is a gorgeous antique store filled with intriguing European and American artifacts. Down the street, Bella Umbrella stocks bumbershoots for the city’s subtropical rains. Or you might want to purchase one of the bespoke, NOLA-made backpacks at Tchoup Industries to carry those distinctive blue-and-white New Orleans street tiles embedded in sidewalk corners (a tradition dating from the late 19th century) and sold at Derby Pottery.

Wednesday Afternoon

Continue to wander along Magazine Street uptown and peruse the galleries and boutiques that do so much to define New Orleans style. There’s Perlis with their iconic crawfish-logo polo shirts, the streetcar ties, and other only-in-Louisiana accessories at NOLA Couture. Find witty tees at Dirty Coast, and jewelry at Mignon Faget—the beloved “Tiffany’s of the bayou.” Should the heavens unleash one of New Orleans’ short-lived but downspout-rattling showers, you’ll see the Uptown ladies don white shrimp boots.

Wednesday Evening

Take in an early dinner of coastal Southern fare at Cavan, an elegant and low-key restaurant that is an example of the new classic eateries popping up all over town. Note: Look for the “New Orleans pivot,” the head twist locals give to scan the tables for eavesdroppers before launching into the latest round of gossip.

Wednesday Late

A legendary watering hole that inspires giddy devotion among its fans, the Maple Leaf Bar in the Oak Street Corridor is a classic way to end an evening in New Orleans on high notes and low ones, with a locally crafted pint, a 3 a.m. closing time, a rambunctious dance floor, and the pounding funk and brass that New Orleans puts out like no other. If that’s not your thing, try grabbing tea at Z’otz—a friendly, funky coffeehouse. It’s open until 1 a.m.

Thursday Morning

Bid farewell to New Orleans with—what else?—food. Screw the calories at the popular, Chef John Besh-run Willa Jean and tuck a loaf of fresh bread or muffins from this downtown bakery into your carry-on. Then dash to the Quarter one last time to buy a mask at Maskarade or a wig at Fifi Mahony’s because you’re absolutely, surely coming back for Mardi Gras.