New Orleans in 7 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
Seven days in New Orleans: the budget version
Seven days extends the 5-day plan with two slower days, Bywater’s gallery scene and a recharge morning, then a last-minute-free-wins day before you fly out. Days one through five stay exactly as they are; days six and seven cost almost nothing beyond food, tips, and the cheapest way out to MSY. This is a full week inside the city itself, no plantation, swamp, or Baton Rouge day trip anywhere on the plan; those live in the separate New Orleans as a base guide .
| 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 |
| Day 6 | Bywater galleries, Magazine Street, Crescent Park, second music venue | $25-40 |
| Day 7 | Last free wins, French Market souvenirs, budget airport transit | $15-25 |
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, so check the schedule against your flight time on norta.com . Skip a rental car for all seven 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 university end of the line near Tulane and Loyola. Audubon Park, free, sits across from campus, live oaks and a lagoon loop, no entry fee. Make lunch a price comparison: gumbo runs $8.50-17.50 a bowl, jambalaya $12-16.50, a po’boy still the cheapest filling meal at $8.50-15. Afternoon is last-minute Quarter shopping, evening a final music night wherever you liked best so far.
Day 6: Bywater galleries and a slow recharge
Sleep in, then spend the morning in Bywater’s small independent galleries and coffee shops, free to browse, a genuinely different register from the Quarter’s density. Walk Crescent Park along the river, free, a quieter riverfront stretch than Woldenberg. Afternoon is a second lap of Magazine Street, window shopping at no cost, or a return trip to whichever French Market stall you liked on day one. Evening is a second live-music venue you haven’t tried yet, Frenchmen Street’s clubs rotate lineups nightly, so a repeat visit rarely repeats the show.
Day 7: Last free wins, then departure
Spend the morning on Jackson Square one more time, a free final lap, then the French Market for any last souvenirs; skip the stalls aimed at cruise-ship traffic and stick to the produce and crafts vendors. For the airport, the RTA 202 Airport Express bus is the cheapest exit at $1.25, about 43 minutes, but it’s daytime-only, so time it against your flight or budget $35-55 for rideshare instead if your flight falls outside the bus’s operating hours.
Is a full week too long for New Orleans on a budget?
Not if you treat days six and seven as genuine rest rather than more paid attractions. Five of the seven days already cover the Quarter, the Garden District, the cemetery choice, City Park, and Uptown; the last two days cost almost nothing beyond food, tips, and the airport bus fare.
Do you need a rental car for a week in the city?
No. Every stop across all seven days sits inside walking, streetcar, or ferry range, and French Quarter and Garden District parking cost more over a week than the transit fares combined. A car only earns its keep on a separate day trip to the plantations, swamps, or Baton Rouge, covered in the New Orleans as a base guide .
Carry cash for tip jars across all three music nights and the cemetery guide’s tip; our New Orleans budget guide and key facts page cover the same prices if you want to double-check anything before you land.