New Orleans Pre-Cruise Tour Recs?

[LuvCruiser70]

I will be staying in New Orleans on a pre-cruise with my family. Does anyone have any recommendations for a pre-cruise tour that includes the following:

 

 

French Quarter - Jackson Square, Royal Street, and Bourbon Street Garden District

Metairie Cemetery

 

 

 

and maybe...

 

Frenchmen Street

Lower 9th Ward

City Park

 

 

I am looking for walking tours or bus/walking tours (no bike tours or segway tours please)

 

Thanks in advance

[jgmpuma]

That's a lot of territory to cover.

 

You can download info on free walking tours of the French Quarter, It is a relatively small area, and easily walkable. The National Park Service offers a free guided walking tour. You can find info at their website.

 

Same with the Garden District. It's easy to get there on the streetcar. More walking than FQ, but fine if the weather cooperates. Commercial tours are also availabe.

 

Metairie Cemetery would be more difficult. It is about 50 blocks from downtown, and not easy to get to with public transportation. It is a fascinating place, and the most "upscale" of the New Orleans cemeteries. Some of the bus tours will take you to other cemeteries, but not that one.

 

Some commercial tours include the Lower 9th Ward. The destruction there is nowhere near as dramatic as it was right after Katrina. Many of the buildings have been demolished, and there is a lot of open space where they stood pre-K. There were a lot of Katrina Disaster tours after the storm, but most areas of the city they covered (including my neighborhood, which had six to ten feet of water) have been mostly rebuilt.

 

Frenchmen Street is adjacent to the French Quarter, and easy to get to. Not much to see during the day, but it is the place to go for great New Orleans music at night.

 

City Park has been improved tremendously since Katrina, but it is a huge place and too big to cover on foot.