New Orleans GoCity Pass… Is it worth it?

I'm going to tell you how we made the most of our pass and our favourite attractions so that you can get the most out of your pass when you visit New Orleans because if it's not on your travel list already you definitely need to add it!

How does it work?

Ok so if you’ve never had a City pass before it is essentially a virtual pass you can buy to give you access to a number of different attractions within certain cities. In most big tourist cities there are usually a few different companies you can use so it’s definitely worth checking out the options before you buy because there are sometimes different attractions you can visit depending on which company you go with. For New Orleans for example we used GoCity but it’s definitely worth looking at other options depending on what you want to do. You’ll also need to decide how many days you want your pass to last, we had our pass for 5 days but options also include 1, 2 & 3 day passes.

It’s worth doing the maths the other way round as well. Write down the four or five things you’d actually pay real money for, then price them up individually on GetYourGuide before you buy any pass at all. If the pass isn’t comfortably cheaper than that list, you’ll spend the whole week rushing about trying to justify it, and that isn’t a holiday.

Once you’ve bought your pass you need to decide when to activate it and when to plan activities. Keep in mind that a lot of the attractions require booking so this is where you really need to do your research and planning.

Top tip for New Orleans: Plan your indoor activities in the afternoon if you want to try and stay cool!

What can you do?

Check out our post and blog on what we did during our 5 day pass, but if you want a full list of activities you can partake in they’re all available from the go city website on gocity.com.

We honestly had soo many highlights from our 5 day pass, (full blog here) but if you’re just after some general recommendations you’re in the right place!

Swamp Tour

You’re in New Orleans.. of course you’re going to do a Swamp Tour to see some Gators! The question is which tour do you do? If you’re using GoCity you can do the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour and the Ultimate Swamp Adventure Tour. We did both and Cajun Pride won hands down. What I will say is both are really well reviewed and we did go at different times, so we may have just got unlucky with the Ultimate Swamp Adventures as we didn’t see many alligators and the ones we did see were pretty small. Cajun Pride on the other hand had other wildlife on offer and some pretty big gators.

From my research it seems that the further outside of the city you go the better the wildlife will get, so if you’re using any other passes do look at where the swamp tours start from. Either way you’ll likely still see some cool animals, they just might not be as big as you want them to be!

If you’re not using a pass at all, the airboat swamp tours out of New Orleans are bookable on their own. From my research it seems the airboats get further into the shallow water than the covered boat we were on, which would fit with what we saw.

The Majestic Queen Creole Paddlewheeler

For me, this is a must do, especially with the $20 bottomless mimosas. Oh yeah… you can get bottomless mimosas for $20! This is not very well advertised anywhere so if you like a bit of bubbly then make sure you ask about this at the bar when you board.

I think what makes this soo enjoyable (other than the mimosas) is just being able to see New Orleans and the Mississippi river from another view point. The cruise we took also had the benefit of docking near at the Jean Lafitte National Park where you can wander through the Chalmette Battlefield. It’s worth noting as well that other cruises have slightly different itineraries. There’s Brunch cruises and Jazz cruises with live music, plus other stops so it’s really worth doing your research on which of these floats your boat…

Ours was included in the pass, but the steamboat cruises can be booked separately too if the pass maths doesn’t come out in your favour. Ask about the mimosas at the bar either way, nobody is going to offer.

Museums Galore

If museums and historic monuments and buildings are your thing, then New Orleans is your kinda place! There are tons of attractions that are included in the attraction passes and in particular the GoCity pass. We managed quite a few different museums but for us the stand out winners would be the Mardi Gras World, Pharmacy Museum and World War 2 museum. These were all fabulous attractions for very different reasons but each one was as enjoyable as the next.

Mardi Gras World had a tour which took visitors around the various statues and floats that had been made for various festivals and events. What made this special is that there were more being made whilst you’re actually on the tour. The WW2 museum had all sorts of displays from cars and trucks, weapons, planes, even boats! The Pharmacy Museum too had all manner of artifacts and medicines including some 200 year old VooDoo potions.

Tours, tours and more tours

There are soo many tours available in and around New Orleans, and the GoCity pass has a ton of these included in the pass price. With the rich, and somewhat dark history of the city, a lot of the tours should be considered PG but all the tours we did were interesting and we enjoyed all of them. The stand out tour for me though was the Adventures in New Orleans Bus Tour. This was absolutely fantastic, the context was engaging, our tour guide was interesting and funny and we had a fabulous time riding around being told stories from the comfort of a air conditioned bus.

The French Quarter Phantoms do deserve a mention here as well as all of the tours we did with them were very enjoyable, especially the Saints and Sinners tour. My advice with tours available is pick your must do and might do tours and plan around those. The tours last around 2 hours each but getting to and from the start and end points usually adds a little more time so consider this when organising your itinerary.

A taste of something different

One of the more surprising attractions included with the GoCity was the New Orleans School of Cooking Demo. If you’re in New Orleans, or planning a visit you probably know that there are some pretty famous cuisine styles in the city. From Gumbo, Jambalaya to Pecan Pralines there’s food for everyone here, and as luck would have it, if you want to learn to cook (and taste) Gumbo, Jambalaya or Pecan Praline the school of cooking can help. The chef is funny, sassy and generally very entertaining to watch and listen to, and the cooking content is delivered so that (as long as you listen) you too would be able to make some food for yours friends and family and have a good story to tell as you cook it.

Give it all a try

All in all, the GoCity is absolutely worth it and there’s plenty to see and do for every kind of tourist. Make sure you check out all the passes available and buy the one that suits you best, and make sure you plan in advance. If you haven’t already check out our blog on what we did here!

One last thing that never makes it into the pass maths: where you sleep. Nearly everything we did started in or near the French Quarter and a couple of the tours picked up from the bigger hotels, so staying in the Quarter saved us more faff than it cost us. The rest of the city comes in cheaper if you don’t mind the walk home at 11pm with three hurricanes in you.

New Orleans Go City Pass FAQs

Is the New Orleans Go City pass worth it? For us, yes. We had the 5 day pass and got through two swamp tours, a stack of museums, a river cruise, a cooking demo and a lot of walking tours. It only works if you plan it though, because a pass you don’t use is just a donation.

How many days should you get? We had 5 and it was relentless, and we needed a recovery day at the end of it. If you like a slower trip, 3 days and a tighter list will suit you far better.

Which New Orleans swamp tour is best on the Go City pass? Cajun Pride, hands down. We did that and the Ultimate Swamp Adventure and Cajun Pride had bigger gators and more wildlife. We went at different times of day and year though, so some of that is luck rather than the tour.

Do you need to book Go City attractions in advance? Yes, and it’s where most of the planning goes wrong. A lot of them require booking, and we found the times on the Go City website weren’t always accurate, particularly the swamp tours, which get cut back in some seasons.

How much are the bottomless mimosas on the Queen Creole? $20 per person when we went in October 2024, and it is barely advertised anywhere. Ask at the bar as you board. You can have them cranberry, pineapple or orange, and you can top up any time you go back.

What happens if you turn up late for a tour? It goes without you. We were about 5 minutes late for the Cities of the Dead tour, rang the company, and there was nothing anybody could do. Arrive early.

Where should you stay in New Orleans to make the most of a pass? In or near the French Quarter if you can, because that’s where most of the tours start and where the pickups happen. Have a look at what’s in the Quarter and price it against the rest of the city, the walk back matters more than you think at the end of a long day.

Prices are what we paid in October 2024. Things move, so check before you book.