New Orleans Best Guided Tours
 

My husband and I will be visiting NOLA for 5 days to celebrate our 30th anniversary, arriving on November 30th. We are staying at the Hotel Mazarin and have been researching where to eat, what to see, etc. In addition to the walking tours we are planning, I am looking for recommendations for guided tours for a swamp boat tour, plantation tours, cemetery tour, and a voodoo/ghost tour. Any other advice or suggestions to make the most out of our trip would be appreciated! Thanks!

Will you have a car? If so, the plantations have their own tours so you just need to drive to them - Laura and Oak Alley are close to New Orleans and thisclose to each other.

We did 4 tours with - http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/new-orleans-tours/
on our first trip to NOLA. We found the guides to be knowledgeable, fun and the tours very informative.

Thanks for the responses, appreciate the link for the walking tours DebitNM. BigRuss, we won't have a car. We're flying in and then we will be walking or using streetcars, taxis, etc. to get around. Are Laura and Oak Alley close enough to New Orleans that a taxi would be reasonable?

DebitNM - Thanks for the link to the Walking Tours. We have enjoyed such in many different cities and in other countries....so, we can now look forward to selecting some for NOLA.

Earlier this year we used this group for both a cemetary tour and also an excellent walking tour of Treme (the only walking tour of Trem available, and it is a fascinating area just outside the Quarter). Both tours were excellent.

Www.frenchquarterphatoms.com

No the plantation tours are not doable by a taxi. I would not bother to even entertain that thought. I would do a tour that includes them it is far more cost effective. I would do the tours without a doubt. They are extremely informative, and interesting. I enjoy history very much and for anyone that does you will find the tours full of a wealth of into you won't get if you go on your own. I highly recommend one of the tours. I have been twice, and enjoyed them both times. You don't need a car.

Also go to Café Du Monde for coffee and pastery. The best ever but I love my coffee. We also did an alligator tour that takes you to the swamps. It was a lot of fun also.

We were in NOLA last December and had Groupons for the St. Louis #1 Cemetery Walking Tour with French Quarter Phantoms. We thought the tour was so good that we booked them for their ghost tour that night. (They offer discounts for booking more than one tour). The ghost tour was good too--not the hokey "paranormal" or "jump out from the dark corners" sort of tour you find with some companies. This one was real stories about real people.

They get excellent reviews on Trip Advisor, too.

https://www.frenchquarterphantoms.com/

Thanks everybody for the great information. We are so excited to explore this amazing city and your suggestions will help us make the most of our trip!

From my trip report:

We then were picked up in front of the Sheraton to take a 2 hour ride with the Honey Island Swampt Tours (cost: $180 for four, cash or Traveler’s Checks only, with the van ride from N.O. to the bayou constituting half the cost). It was well worth it, even though it lacked warm weather greenery and the cold-blooded animals were general not visible. We saw only one relatively small alligator. The tour guide was excellent. He felt that March-April would be the best time to visit the area, when the foliage is not fully gown, allowing us to see the bird life, but also when it is warm enough for the alligators to be out of their semi-hibernation. The boat ride gave us a glimpse of the way people live along the Pearl River, some of it reminiscent of “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” On the way to Slidell the van driver pointed out to us all the abandoned buildings that existed south of N.O. including a small shopping mall, a hospital and of course housing. We learned quite a bit about the aftermath of Katrina. He had also lost his ancestral house (built by his grandfather) but did not explain his current living situation--clearly not easy as he was working full-time at the age of 75.