Garden District Walking Tour: Mansions and Lafayette Cemetery
Walk among the grand houses built as Americans made a city uptown from Creole New Orleans.
Louisiana
Things to do in New Orleans on foot
2 tours in New Orleans
Haunted French Quarter Walking Tour
Walk the French Quarter from a grand hotel to an old convent and storied house.
New Orleans on foot
The French Quarter is the oldest part of New Orleans, laid out by the French in 1718 and largely rebuilt by the Spanish after the great fires of 1788 and 1794, which is why so much of its "French" architecture is Spanish colonial. Its balconies, courtyards and old institutions have gathered more legends than almost any neighborhood in America. Our walk covers 1.1 miles of it in eight stops, starting at the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street and ending at the Beauregard-Keyes House on Chartres Street. You hear about the pharmacist and the doctor behind the rumors at the Pharmacy Museum, the Cabildo room where the Louisiana Supreme Court heard the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson, Père Antoine and St. Louis Cathedral, and Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, where the pirate may never have had a drink. At the LaLaurie Mansion you hear about the enslaved cook who set the fire in 1834 and what the rescuers found inside. At the Old Ursuline Convent you hear the story of the attic and the nuns' chests. The legends are part of the city, so you hear them. Then you hear what the record shows, including the real cruelty some ghost stories turn into entertainment. The walk takes about 55 minutes with the stories, on flat Quarter sidewalks, and works by day or after dark. Our second walk goes uptown to the Garden District, where Americans built big houses in the 1800s beside the older Creole city. It starts at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 and passes Commander's Palace, the Gothic Briggs-Staub House, Colonel Short's Villa with its cast-iron cornstalk fence, Anne Rice's former home, the house where Jefferson Davis died in 1889, Toby's Corner and the Buckner Mansion. It's 1.3 miles and about 54 minutes with the stories. The houses are private homes, so you see them from the sidewalk.
New Orleans: questions people ask
Is the LaLaurie Mansion on the tour?
Yes, it's the sixth stop of the French Quarter walk. It's a private home, so you see it from the street and hear what happened there in 1834, from the fire to what the rescuers found.
How long is the French Quarter ghost walk?
It's 1.1 miles and takes about 55 minutes with all eight stories.
Where does it start and end?
The French Quarter walk starts at the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street and ends at the Beauregard-Keyes House on Chartres Street, across from the Old Ursuline Convent.
Is there a self-guided Garden District walking tour?
Yes. It starts at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 and ends at the Buckner Mansion on Jackson Avenue: 1.3 miles, eight stops and about 54 minutes with the stories. The St. Charles streetcar connects it with the French Quarter.
Is there a self-guided tour of New Orleans?
Yes. 2 tours, including "Garden District Walking Tour: Mansions and Lafayette Cemetery", are on Stories. Unlock it once for your group for $4.99 and play it in your browser; the app plays each story as you arrive.
Every Stories tour plays in your browser, no app needed. How it works
Know someone headed to New Orleans? Give a walk as a gift, emailed on the day you pick.