New Orleans in 5 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
Five days in New Orleans: the budget version
Five days extends the 4-day plan with a fifth day built around food prices and Uptown, riding the streetcar past the Garden District to Audubon Park and the Carrollton end of the line. Days one through four stay exactly as they are; day five adds a gumbo-and-po’boy price crawl rather than another paid attraction. Budget $35-55 for day five, the cheapest day of the whole trip.
| Day | Focus | Rough spend (1 person, excl. lodging) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Jackson Square, St Louis Cathedral, French Market, Frenchmen Street | $35-55 |
| Day 2 | St Charles streetcar, Garden District, National WWII Museum, Preservation Hall | $75-95 |
| Day 3 | Cemetery choice, Woldenberg Park, Canal St Ferry, Bywater/Marigny | $25-75 |
| Day 4 | City Park, Treme, Louis Armstrong Park, optional Steamboat Natchez cruise | $30-100 |
| Day 5 | Uptown/Carrollton streetcar, Audubon Park, gumbo and po’boy crawl | $35-55 |
Book these before you go:
- National WWII Museum ticket : a multi-building campus, not a quick stop; buy ahead to skip the box-office line.
- St Louis Cemetery No. 1 guided tour : mandatory if you want this specific cemetery, about $33, no walk-in option at any price.
- Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise : from $43.50, the one real splurge on this plan, book ahead for a specific departure time.
- Preservation Hall: no advance ticket exists for general admission, arrive 30-45 minutes early instead (preservationhall.com ).
Getting in without overspending
MSY airport sits about 15 miles from the Quarter. A taxi runs a flat $36 for 1-2 riders (dropping to $15 a person for 3+), rideshare runs $35-55, and the RTA 202 Airport Express bus is cheapest at $1.25 flat fare, about 43 minutes to Canal Street, daytime-only, check the schedule against your flight time on norta.com . Skip a rental car for all five days.
Day 1: French Quarter, free and cheap
Jackson Square, free, then St Louis Cathedral, free, open 9:30am-4pm daily. Browse the French Market, then beignets at Cafe du Monde, $3.60-5.43 for three, cash only, not a 24-hour spot (closes 11pm Sunday-Thursday, midnight Friday-Saturday). Lunch is a po’boy, $8.50-15. Afternoon is Royal Street’s free galleries over Bourbon Street’s daytime bar strip. Evening is Frenchmen Street’s free-door clubs in the Marigny; tip the band $5-10 a set, cash.
Day 2: Garden District, streetcar, and the one paid splurge
Ride the St Charles Streetcar, $1.25 or a $3 day pass, into the Garden District. Walk Prytania Street and Washington Avenue’s mansions for free; Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 stays closed to independent access in 2026, viewable from the gates on a guided tour. Browse Magazine Street at no cost, then the National WWII Museum , $36 adult, a half-day-minimum campus. Evening is Preservation Hall, $15-20 standing, arrive early, or a budget dinner.
Day 3: The cemetery choice, the river, and Bywater
Morning is the cemetery decision: roughly $33 for a licensed guide into St Louis Cemetery No. 1, or a free walk-in at St Louis Cemetery No. 3 or Metairie Cemetery. Afternoon is Woldenberg Park along the Mississippi, free, then the Canal Street Ferry to Algiers Point. Evening wanders the Marigny and Bywater for a second, quieter live-music strip.
Day 4: City Park, Treme, and an optional splurge
Morning is City Park, free to walk; skip the New Orleans Museum of Art’s separate admission if the budget’s the priority. Afternoon is Treme, the oldest African-American neighborhood in the US, past Congo Square and Louis Armstrong Park. Evening is the one real splurge, a Steamboat Natchez jazz cruise around $43.50, or a cheap dinner if you’d rather skip it.
Day 5: Uptown, Audubon Park, and a food price crawl
Ride the St Charles Streetcar past the Garden District to Uptown and Carrollton, the residential end of the line lined with university-era houses near Tulane and Loyola. Audubon Park, free, sits across from the campus, live oaks and a lagoon loop with no entry fee. Make lunch a price comparison instead of a single stop: gumbo runs $8.50-17.50 a bowl depending on the venue, jambalaya $12-16.50, and a po’boy still the cheapest filling meal in the city at $8.50-15. Spend the afternoon back in the Quarter for last-minute shopping, then close with a final music night, Frenchmen Street again or a Bywater bar you missed on day three.
Is five days too long for a New Orleans budget trip?
Not if you treat day five as the food-and-Uptown day rather than another paid attraction. Four of the five days already cover the Quarter, the Garden District, the cemetery choice, and City Park; day five adds Audubon Park and a genuine food-price comparison for the cost of a streetcar fare and lunch.
Do these five days need a rental car?
No. The streetcar reaches Uptown the same way it reaches the Garden District, and nothing on this plan sits outside walking, streetcar, or ferry range. A rental car only earns its cost on a separate day trip, covered in the New Orleans as a base guide .
Carry cash for the food crawl and the tip jars on both music nights; the 7-day plan adds two more slow days on top of this same spine if a week fits your trip better.