The Top 5 Neighborhoods in New Orleans

Mid-City is where New Orleans actually hangs out: 1,300-acre City Park with its free Besthoff Sculpture Garden and NOMA, beignets at the calmer Café du Monde outpost, po-boys and neighborhood bars along the Canal streetcar and Bayou St. John. A friend sends you here on day two or three. Caveat: sights are spread out — it's not a stroll-everywhere district.

Tremé is the oldest African American neighborhood in the country — birthplace of second lines, home to Congo Square, the 10am Sunday jazz Mass at St. Augustine, and gumbo at civil-rights landmark Dooky Chase's. A friend sends you here to understand where the culture comes from. Go respectfully: it's a living neighborhood, not an attraction.

Bywater is the pastel-shotgun-house neighborhood downriver of the Marigny — the New Orleans locals actually live in, with backyard wine at Bacchanal, riverfront strolls in Crescent Park, and BMike's murals at Studio Be. A friend would absolutely send you. Caveat: it's a hike from the Quarter with spotty transit, so budget for rideshares or a bike.

The Garden District is the mansion-and-oak-tree showpiece of Uptown New Orleans — ride the 24-hour St. Charles streetcar ($1.25) past antebellum houses, then lunch at Commander's Palace with 25-cent martinis. A friend would send you for the easiest half-day in the city. Honest caveat: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 remains closed to visitors, with no reopening date.

The Marigny is where locals send you for live music: Frenchmen Street packs a dozen venues into three blocks, from no-cover joints like the Spotted Cat to ticketed rooms like Snug Harbor ($25-45). Creole cottages and rainbow paint jobs by day, brass bands by night. Caveat: Frenchmen has gotten touristy — it's still miles better than Bourbon.

Uptown is New Orleans's leafy, elegant swath of the city stretching upriver from the Garden District, full of grand oak-lined streets, historic mansions, and two universities (Tulane and Loyola). Ride the St. Charles Avenue streetcar under the live oaks, wander the shops, cafes, and restaurants along Magazine Street, and spend an afternoon in Audubon Park with its golf course, lagoon, and walk to the zoo. It's spread out and mostly residential, so plan to combine the streetcar with walking rather than trying to see it all in one stroll.

The Warehouse (Arts) District is downtown's converted-brick-loft quarter: the world-class National WWII Museum ($36 adults, daily 9am-5pm), the Ogden's Southern art, Julia Street galleries, and some of the city's best-regarded restaurants like Cochon and Pêche. A friend sends you for a museum-and-lunch day. Caveat: it's polished and quiet at night — atmosphere lives elsewhere.

The Vieux Carré is the 300-year-old heart of the city — Jackson Square, Royal Street galleries, Preservation Hall jazz ($25-50 nightly sets), and beignets at Café du Monde 24/7. You have to go; it's genuinely beautiful and walkable. Caveat: Bourbon Street is a boozy theme park — the real Quarter is everything two blocks either side of it.