Our 5 day Itinerary

We found out that the times and dates shown on the GoCity website aren't all that accurate, and quite a few attractions (the Swamp Tours in particular) were reduced in certain seasons. Again, just make sure you do your own research and planning and you'll have a blast!

Day 1 - Cajun Pride Swamp Tour, Mardi Gras Museum, Ghost & Vampire Tour

Day 1 was one of my favourite days. We started off in the morning with the Cajun Swamp Tour and what a way to start the day. We had arranged to be picked up by the Tour bus as the Swamp was a 30 minute drive out of the city. Everything was smooth sailing, and we were out on the swamp boat in no time. Straight away we started to see alligators, raccoons, wild boars and a variety of birds. I have to say, our tour guide didn’t appear to be the most knowledgeable but he was sure entertaining and we absolutely loved seeing the alligators up close! Our guide even brought some snacks for the alligators!

After the Swamp tour we were back on the bus and heading back to the city, and as luck would have it the swamp tour bus was heading back via the Mardi Gras Museum so we asked to get out here. Whilst at the Mardi Gras Museum we got some surprisingly nice “Buzzballs” which were essentially little cans of boozy cocktails, and needless to say they lived up to their name and we enjoyed our tour very much! Not to say we wouldn’t if we hadn’t had a drink, but it certainly made walking around and looking at the huge floats and statues even more impressive.

Our evening activity on the day was another tour but definitely a different flavour to Mardi Gras! As lovers of the weird and wonderful, the amount of quirky tours available in New Orleans definitely ticked our curiosity and the Ghost and Vampire tour seemed like a good start to our GoCity week! The tour starts from the Voodoo Lounge where Hurricane Cocktails are 2 for 1 for all tour goers. The tour then walks through various stops in the French Quarter with interesting stories being told about the supernatural myths and figures that exist within the city. Don’t worry I won’t spoil anything, but what I will say is there is no shortage of weird stories associated with New Orleans and if you like a touch of the weird, this is a good tour for you!

Day 2 - Voodoo Tour & School of Cooking

After having such an exciting and busy first day, we wanted to make sure that we also had some time for just general exploration around the city, and with our 5 day pass this was super easy to do because we knew that we had more time. With that being said we still opted for a morning activity… a Voodoo Tour by the French Quarter Phantoms! Similarly to the previous tour, it did not disappoint. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and interesting to listen to, and was obviously very interested in the subjects being talked about. If you’re interested in knowing about the famous figures in Voodoo, and how it actually came about this is definitely the tour for you!

School of Cookery was next up on our daily agenda and it was absolutely fabulous. If you know anything about food in and around New Orleans you’ll have definitely heard of Gumbo, Jambalaya and Pecan Pralines, and if you’re at all interested in cooking I’m sure you’d love to know how a professional chef makes these wonderful dishes so that you too can make them at home. This is exactly what the School of Cookery gave us, with the added bonus of being able to eat the food after it was made. It’s worth noting that whilst there was no “hands on” cooking, the chef excelled in really explaining how to craft each dish, and was extremely funny and entertaining throughout. Totally recommend this if you visit New Orleans with a GoCity pass.

Day 3 - Adventures Bus Tour & Saints and Sinners

Third day into our GoCity Pass and another two tours booked! First up was the New Orleans Adventure Bus Tour, this was a top recommended tour on the GoCity site and for good reason! Our tour guide was a true New Orleanian, had lived in the City his entire life and as such his subject knowledge was incredible. We boarded the bus and began our adventure tour, and whilst I don’t think “Adventure” was quite the right word to describe the tour, it was certainly one of my favourites of the trip. The subjects ranged from local happenings, funny stories, geographical locations, right the way through to what life was like during Hurricane Katrina. It was truly a brilliant tour and our guide was 10/10.

So with our bus tour completed it appears that we went from one exceptional tour guide to the other. Once again the French Quarter Phantoms delivered and we had an amazing time learning about the famous and more likely infamous figures that were prominent in New Orleans’ past life. If I could describe the content here in as few words (and letters) as possible, it would be PG. Which incidentally would be the advice I would give to any parents or caregivers when booking this tour with kids. Hear me out, whilst I’m confident that the guides can tailor tours for most age groups, the subjects could open up a whole host of questions that you might not want to answer! So proceed with caution.

Day 4 - Cities of the Dead, WW2 Museum, Southern Food Museum, Queen Creole & Vue Orleans

First things first… I lied. We didn’t actually get to our Cities of the Dead tour, but I can give some advice instead. When the tour company says arrive early… arrive early! We were around 5 minutes late for this tour and it had already left. We phoned the company but unfortunately was unable to track down the tour and join late. Moral of the story… don’t be late!

Undeterred, we decided to hit up a few museums instead and honestly it was super fun. Not to say that we wouldn’t have enjoyed the tour, but museums give the opportunity to learn at your own speed and we love them. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum was pretty small but was very enjoyable to walk around. The owner was absolutely lovely too and we even ended up picking up a few recipe books, at $3 each we were thrilled!

The WW2 museum was next on the agenda and it was absolutely incredible. As a bit of a history buff myself, I love learning about our history and WW2 was one of my favourite topics at history class in school. From films, to large aircraft hanging from the ceiling, to reading diary entries from real soldiers and people the exhibits were fantastic. For me again this is a must see attraction.

To round off the day of GoCity attractions we booked a quick visit to Vue Orleans to see the city from a birds eye view and enjoyed a Mississippi River Cruise onboard the delightful Queen Creole Paddlewheeler. With Bottomless Mimosas onboard for an additional $20 per person we had an absolute blast! Looking out at the river whilst hearing about the places we were cruising by was absolutely brilliant. We even disembarked at the site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, where we could look around the Chalmette Battlefield including the Malus-Beauregard House and the Chalmette Monument before re-boarding for the return cruise. What a way to spend an afternoon!

Top Tip: you can ask for Cranberry, Pineapple or Orange Mimosas and can get top ups anytime you visit back to the bar.

Day 5 - Ultimate Swamp Adventure Tour & True Crime Tour

Let me tell you.. I’ve never known 5 days to go by as fast as they did whilst using our GoCity passes, and whilst I would absolutely recommend getting as many activities done as possible, you may well need a relaxation day afterwards… we certainly did!

We started the day off with another Swamp tour, this time the Ultimate Swamp Tour. The last Swamp tour we did was on day 1 and it was an absolute blast, if you follow our instagram (and if you don’t you absolutely should) you’ll have seen the reels we made showing how up close and personal we got with the gators. After having had this experience we expected the same from this tour. Unfortunately this was not what we got. There were very few alligators about, and the ones that were were pretty small. After having a look at some of the other reviews I think we may have just been unlucky with the time of day and time of year. They are wild animals after all, and if they don’t want to be out and about at all times we can’t blame them. Regardless of the lack of gators, it was still a very enjoyable outing and we got ourselves “Swamp Water” cocktails from the bar outside which were ace!

Our final tour of the GoCity was true crime, one which we’d both been really looking to. This tour in particular was strange in that the content and stories being told were super interesting… our tour guide though was not the best and the delivery was the most scripted we’d had whilst in New Orleans. Honestly, throughout the week we’d had some exceptional guides and potentially at this point were a little bit spoiled which is why I’m still going to recommend doing this tour, the content and stories were extremely interesting and regardless of the delivery, we still had an awesome night. An added bonus was that we found the BEST Hurricane Cocktail in New Orleans right next to where the tour starts, Finnegan’s Easy Irish Bar.. make sure you check it out!

Let’s wrap it up!

So that’s it! 5 days of action, adventure, stories, walking, exploring, learning, and drinking hurricanes… a lot of hurricanes! It was awesome! If you get the chance to visit New Orleans you absolutely need to look into the attraction pass options, you won’t regret it.