7 best neighborhoods in New Orleans

There is nowhere in the US quite like New Orleans.

This unique city sits at a sort of space-time intersection that mixes up elements of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and of course, North America. Each neighborhood offers something special.

You can dine on Vietnamese food married to Southern grits in the shadow of a giant Latin American grocery store for dinner, find your soul at a jazz show that feels like it slipped out of the early 20th century for dessert, and have a nightcap of punk rock next to a mural steeped in the contemporary Civil Rights movement. If you’re ready to sup off life’s giant menu, the Crescent City will provide, and if you come with the right attitude, it might let you in on some off-menu secrets. These are some of our favorite neighborhoods to base yourself and explore.

The Marigny and Bywater

Best for music and the arts 

It is no secret locally that Faubourg Marigny — better known as the Marigny (“faubourg” means suburb or neighborhood) — and Bywater have arguably undergone the most rapid changes of any part of the city since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The old stuff like the candy-colored Creole cottages and shotgun houses are still here, and they’ve now been joined by quirky new spots such as the not-a-country-club Country Club, a queer-friendly bar with a heated pool hidden by a tropical garden. And of course what’s still here is the music that brings Frenchmen Street, one of the greatest live music blocks in the world, alive any day of the week. 

That live music speaks to the arts that so heavily infuse these neighborhoods (indeed, the state arts conservatory for high school students, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, literally sits at the border of the Marigny and Bywater). This isn’t an area for art galleries, per se, but a critical mass of the people who live here are connected to the city’s creative communities, either as working artists or professionals who are involved with the arts.

A lot of these residents were attracted by the sheer exuberance of the colorful homes that make up so much of the housing stock out here, and it doesn’t hurt that the French Quarter is a short walk (and even quicker bicycle ride) away. As more artists and LGBTIQ+ individuals moved…