Reprinted from New Orleans Online:
If you’re going to the APP and/or IRVA conferences later this month, check out these fun attractions in the Big Easy:
- Gallery hop in the Arts District along Julia Street.
- Stroll Royal and Chartres streets and window shop the arts, antiques and boutiques.
- Watch the ships pass on the Mississippi River from Woldenberg Riverfront Park and listen for the Steamboat Natchez’s calliope.
- Learn about local the beer-brewing scene with a complimentary tour of the NOLA Brewing
- Ride the Canal Street Ferry to Algiers Point and see the New Orleans skyline.
- Experience a cooking demonstration at the Crescent City Farmers Market.
- Dance down Frenchmen Street at night, many clubs don’t have a cover charge.
- Enjoy free oysters and music every Friday at Le Bon Temps Roule music club.
- Browse the shops and stalls throughout the French Market.
- Tour Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Check out the New Orleans Museum of Art
- Bring your book on the Garden District and take a self-guided walking tour.
- Find a Saturday Art Market and check out the local art scene.
- Go upstairs at Arnaud’s for a tour of their Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum.
- Watch artists demonstrate glassblowing at Rosetree Glass Studio, Studio Inferno, or Glassworks.
- Sit under 100 year old Oak trees in Audubon Park and/or City Park.
- See beignets made through the kitchen window at Café du Monde in Dutch Alley.
- Sample a praline at a sweet shop.
- Take a free self-guided audio tour of downtown and the French Quarter with the National Park Service at 419 Decatur Street.
- Try on masks and boas in French Quarter
- People watch on Bourbon Street.
- Make a wish in the fountain at Spanish Plaza in front of the Riverwalk Shopping Center.
- Watch looming at Louisiana Loom Works on Chartres Street.
- Check out Harrah’s Hotel and Casino.
- Catch a concert at Wednesdays on the Point during the summer months taking place in Old Historic Algiers just a quick ferry ride across the Mississippi from the French Quarter.
- Window shop on Magazine Street.
- Walk the nature trail at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Barataria Unit.
- Experience the great outdoors at NOLA’s very own National Park with free admission to the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve.
- Located on the Mississippi River adjacent to the French Quarter, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas immerses you in an underwater world. The colors of a Caribbean reef come alive in our walk-through tunnel, while our penguins and Southern sea otters enchant you with their antics. $23.95 Adult Admission
- French Quarter Walking Tour by Friends of the Cabildo, $15; 701 Chartres St. (504) 523-3939
- French Quarter Walking Tour by Jean Lafitte National Historical Park Service, 419 Decatur St, (504) 589-2636; Free