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Some may feel that New Orleans, Louisiana is not a destination you can enjoy with kids, but we had such a great time there! We traveled with our 6 kids ages 3-16 and had plenty of clean fun while we were there. We ate delicious food, went to amazing museums, took historic walks around the city and had a blast riding the street car. Read on for all our favorite places and activities!

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Cafe Du Monde was our favorite place to eat in New Orleans!! They are famous for their freshly made, delicious beignets (French style donuts) piled with powdered sugar. We loved it so much we actually visited there twice during our quick stay!
This fun coffee stand (turned outdoor restaurant) located on Decatur in the French Market, was established in 1862. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and only close on Christmas or when there are hurricanes that are too close by. The prices are very reasonable and we even grabbed some mix to bring home with us (which we later found at our local grocery store- ha ha!).
Cafe Du Monde is just off the waterfront and across the street from Jackson Square. They have a great public parking lot in the back where we parked while we toured around the city.
On the backside of the restaurant is a very colorful work of art that you see the kids sitting in front of in the cover photo of this post. It’s a great picture taking spot.
Grab a warm beignet, or 10, and a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice. They are amazing!!
Jackson Square which is across the street from Cafe Du Monde is filled with the most entertaining street performers!! We saw kids playing 5 gallon buckets with sticks better than some professional drummers. We saw guys break dancing, doing gymnastics routines, and playing lots of fun jazz and blues music.
Take a stroll down the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is a paved bank of the Mississippi River. An easy way to access it is on the back side of Cafe Du Monde. There are steps that go down right into the river where the kids can splash their feet in the water. There are nice benches lining the path to sit on and relax while you watch the steam boats glide by.
As you walk down the Riverwalk a bit, you can board different steam boats for cruises or take tours. There is shopping and restaurants and lots of empty gazebos and amphitheaters where performers may be or where you can put on your own show. After seeing all the excitement in Jackson Square, our kids tried some break dancing of their own on these empty stages. We had a really fun time just playing around and enjoying the fun music, atmosphere and beautiful water views.

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Take a Streetcar (trolley) Ride!! Getting tickets was a confusing endeavor. We found the easiest way was to purchase tickets online and show the trolley driver our phones as we got on. We took the St Charles Street Car from the French Quarter to the Garden District. From St Charles we went down Washington Ave till we got to the Lafayette Cemetery. Our kids loved this.
Lafayette Cemetery is a very old, elaborate, above ground cemetery about a 3 minute walk away from the St Charles Street Car stop. This cemetery has been an active cemetery since 1833 and still has burials occurring. There are about 1,000 tombs there and it takes up a city block. You can purchase a self guided tour or just walk around if it is open.
Garden District Walk has the most amazing architecture! We loved looking at all the old homes here. We did an abbreviated walk because we were toting along 6 kids with us, but we definitely needed the exercise after all those beignets!!
We walked from Lafayette Cemetery down Prytania Street and went around the block by Third Street to see the incredible homes there. From there we looped back up toward the Street Car Stop on St Charles Ave to take us back to the French Quarter where we were parked. Hop on the map ap on your phone and you will see all the streets I’m talking about.
*On a personal note: it was on the streetcar ride back to the French Quarter that we received a phone call from our daughter at college that school was shutting down due to the COVID-19 virus. Our phones started blowing up with texts about our other kids’ schools, church, and extracurricular activities coming to a screeching halt.
We looked around the streetcar that was standing room only with about 60 people packed on board and had the most surreal moment. What a place to receive news about the pandemic shutdown!
WWII Museum - pricey but soooo incredible!!! We were so glad we spent the extra money to go on this tour. This museum takes you through the entire war time line showing what was happening in different countries. We saw the machinery, propaganda, weapons, vehicles, pictures, stories, ways of life, war tactics and so many different things. It was astounding. I can’t praise it enough. Everyone in our family was engaged.

While there are parts of New Orleans - like Bourbon Street- that are NOT family friendly (steer as clear as you can from there with your kiddos), we found NOLA was a place that was extremely unique and filled with history. We loved our little trip there.

If you have time to go to the bayou while you are on your trip, I highly recommend it. We spent some time a few hours North up at Caddo Lake (on the border of Texas and Louisiana) and it was serene, spooky and so relaxing. It was the complete opposite of NOLA, and so fun in its own way. Check out our post all about the swamp tour and cozy AirBNB we stayed in up there.

NOLA has a charm and history like no other! We love the cooking, the melting pot of culture and the fun traditions we learned about there. This Cajun Style Sheet Pan Dinner would be the perfect main dish for a Mardi Gras Party. The andouille sausage, red beans and classic vegetables used in Louisiana make you feel you are transported straight to the Big Easy!

Make sure you access our Beignet & other Louisiana Inspired Recipes in our FREEBIE Resource Library!