Garden District Walk

Not a single sight but a neighborhood to walk — the Garden District's live-oak-lined streets of antebellum mansions, wrought-iron galleries, and lush gardens, with the historic Lafayette Cemetery nearby. Laid out by wealthy Americans who settled upriver from the Creole Quarter, it remains one of the best-preserved collections of grand 19th-century houses in the country. The pleasure is entirely in the wandering. For visitors, an unhurried stroll beneath the oaks — ideally reached by the St. Charles streetcar — is one of the essential New Orleans experiences, each block revealing another extravagant facade and shaded garden.