With kids · New Orleans · United States
New Orleans with kids
Family-tested sights, a calm base and the practical details that make travelling with children easier.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Quick answer
New Orleans is more family-friendly than Bourbon Street suggests: the zoo, aquarium, City Park's Storyland and carousel, streetcar rides, a paddle-steamer cruise and Mardi Gras World all appeal to children. Daytime Carnival parades along St. Charles Avenue are a family tradition; Bourbon Street at night is best avoided with kids. Top picks: Audubon Zoo, Audubon Aquarium and City Park and NOMA Sculpture Garden. Families usually base themselves in Warehouse District and CBD.
Key facts
- Family picks
- 7
- Best area for families
- Warehouse District and CBD
- Rainy-day options
- 2
- Busiest months
- February and April
Best things to do with kids
Zoo · Uptown
1.Audubon Zoo
In Uptown's Audubon Park, the zoo's Louisiana Swamp exhibit recreates a Cajun bayou with alligators, including rare white alligators, while other areas cover the African savanna, Asian animals and a jaguar jungle. The park around it has a shaded loop path under live oaks.
Ride the St. Charles streetcar to Audubon Park and walk through the park to the zoo; it takes about 20 minutes on foot.
- Time needed
- 3 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Outdoors
- Nature
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Aquarium · Riverfront
2.Audubon Aquarium
At the foot of Canal Street by the river, the aquarium has a walk-through tunnel under a Caribbean reef, a large tank of Gulf sea life, a rainforest gallery and a penguin colony. It reopened after a major renovation in 2023.
Combine it with the riverfront walk and the Canal Street ferry to Algiers Point.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Rainy day
- Nature
Park · Mid-City
3.City Park and NOMA Sculpture Garden
At about 1,300 acres, City Park is larger than New York's Central Park and holds one of the world's largest stands of mature live oaks. It includes the New Orleans Museum of Art and its free Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, the New Orleans Botanical Garden, Storyland and the Carousel Gardens amusement park with its antique wooden carousel.
Take the Canal streetcar's City Park/Museum branch to the end of the line, which stops at the museum steps.
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Cost
- Free
- Free
- Kids
- Outdoors
- Art
- Nature
Experience · Riverfront
4.Steamboat Natchez river cruise
The Natchez is a steam-powered sternwheeler that sails from the Toulouse Street Wharf behind Jackson Brewery, with a calliope concert on deck before departure and a jazz band on board. The two-hour harbour cruise passes the port, Algiers Point and the Chalmette battlefield.
Go below deck during the cruise to watch the steam engines working.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Couples
- Kids
- Views
- Iconic
Experience · Warehouse District
5.Mardi Gras World
In riverfront warehouses near the Convention Center, Mardi Gras World is where Kern Studios builds and stores giant floats for many Carnival krewes. Guided tours show sculptors and painters at work on papier-mâché and foam figures, and include a slice of king cake.
Visit if you can't be in town for Carnival; it is the closest you will get to the floats up close.
- Time needed
- 1–1.5 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Rainy day
- Art
Experience · St. Charles Avenue
6.St. Charles streetcar
Running since 1835, the St. Charles line is the oldest continuously operating street railway in the world. Its olive-green wooden cars rattle about 21 km from Canal Street through the Garden District and Uptown, past mansions, Loyola and Tulane universities and Audubon Park, to Carrollton Avenue.
Ride out to Audubon Park, walk through to the zoo or the river, and come back at dusk; have exact change or a pass in the Le Pass app.
- Time needed
- About 45 minutes each way
- Cost
- Low cost
- Iconic
- History
- Kids
- Views
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Market · French Quarter
7.Café du Monde and the French Market
Café du Monde has served beignets, square doughnuts buried in powdered sugar, with chicory café au lait under its green-and-white awning since 1862. Behind it, the French Market's open-air sheds stretch along Decatur Street with food stalls, a flea market and souvenir stands.
Table queues build by mid-morning; the takeaway window round the side usually moves faster. Avoid wearing black.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Low cost
- Food
- Iconic
- Kids
- Shopping
Rainy-day ideas
- Audubon Aquarium — Combine it with the riverfront walk and the Canal Street ferry to Algiers Point.
- Mardi Gras World — Visit if you can't be in town for Carnival; it is the closest you will get to the floats up close.
Where families should stay
$$$ · Best for first-timers, families and culture
Warehouse District and CBD
Between Canal Street and the Pontchartrain Expressway, the former cotton and coffee warehouses of the Warehouse District now hold the National WWII Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, galleries on Julia Street and many of the city's large hotels. It is a 10–15-minute walk to the French Quarter, with the Convention Center and the Caesars Superdome nearby.
- Good
- Wide choice of hotels with pools; Walkable to the Quarter but quieter; Museums on the doorstep
- Watch out
- Busy during big conventions; Fewer historic buildings than the Quarter
- Nearby
- National WWII Museum, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Julia Street, Convention Center
Family travel tips
- Watch Carnival parades from St. Charles Avenue Uptown, where families set up along the route, rather than in the French Quarter.
- The Louisiana Children's Museum in City Park is aimed at young children and works well on a hot or rainy afternoon.
- In summer, plan outdoor sightseeing for the morning and save the aquarium or museums for the afternoon heat.
- Swamp tours with hotel pick-up are an easy way to see alligators with children.
- Go to Café du Monde early, before queues and heat build.
Day trips for families
- Barataria Preserve (About 30 minutes by car) — Part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, Barataria has boardwalk trails through cypress swamp, bayou and marsh where you can see alligators, turtles and wading birds without joining a boat tour.
- Honey Island Swamp tours (About 45 minutes by car) — Boat tours near Slidell take you through one of the least-altered river swamps in the US, among cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, with alligators, herons and turtles; many operators offer pick-up from central hotels.
- Baton Rouge (About 1 hour 15 minutes by car) — Louisiana's capital has the 34-storey Art Deco State Capitol, the tallest state capitol in the US, with a free observation deck, plus the Old State Capitol's Gothic castle and the riverside USS Kidd museum ship.
When to go with children
The best months overall are February–April and October–November. February and April are the busiest, so book the big sights early. Weather by month.
Questions travellers ask
+Is New Orleans good for kids?
New Orleans is more family-friendly than Bourbon Street suggests: the zoo, aquarium, City Park's Storyland and carousel, streetcar rides, a paddle-steamer cruise and Mardi Gras World all appeal to children. Daytime Carnival parades along St. Charles Avenue are a family tradition; Bourbon Street at night is best avoided with kids.
+What can kids do in New Orleans?
Audubon Zoo, Audubon Aquarium, City Park and NOMA Sculpture Garden, Steamboat Natchez river cruise and Mardi Gras World.
+Where should families stay in New Orleans?
Warehouse District and CBD: Converted warehouses, the WWII Museum, galleries and big hotels.