Find Your Own Adventure – A Walking Guide to New Orleans

By Dennis Clutter

In my last post, I described some of the ways you could take a drive through the areas surrounding New Orleans, but not everyone may have access to a car or the ability to explore areas far from the city. Fortunately, virtually every neighborhood within New Orleans is packed with history and culture.

If you are confined to New Orleans, go for a walk! If you pay attention on your walk, you will notice tons of official markers that describe pieces of New Orleans’ history. Stroll down St. Charles to the Garden District and look for some of the historic homes. One of the homes around the corner from me in Uptown was the home of John Kennedy Toole, the author of A Confederacy of Dunces. Tennessee Williams lived in several places around the city and used his experiences here as inspiration for A Streetcar Named Desire. Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Faulkner are other famous authors who at one point called New Orleans home.

The Women’s Opera Guild Home as featured on the music video for Drake’s “In My Feelings”

Go see the house where Drake threw rocks to get Kiki’s attention in his music video for “In My Feelings” at 2504 Prytania. Wander through some of New Orleans’ famous cemeteries without all the tourists. Go to City Park and find the Dueling Oaks where high society New Orleanians would fight in early city history. That includes many individuals whose names you might be accustomed to seeing like Bernard Mandeville de Marigny. Make it a challenge to find the biggest live oak in the city! For a summer appropriate activity, try finding the city’s best snoball stand.

With not much else to do these days, you don’t need an excuse to go for an extended walk. Brave the heat, wear some sunscreen, and just start walking. New Orleans has some of the country’s most interesting history, so keep your eyes peeled for any historical markers or descriptions. Below are a couple of links that might inspire the direction of your walk , but feel free to find your own adventure too!