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Choose Your Tour Style
Public Tours
Perfect for individuals, couples & small groups
Join fellow travelers in our signature small-group experiences. Maximum 9 people ensures personal attention while meeting like-minded explorers.
Private Group Tours
Ideal for celebrations & corporate events
Exclusive experiences for your party only. Perfect for bachelorette parties, corporate team building, family reunions, or any special occasion requiring personalized attention.
Discover Unique Experiences
Magazine Street Foodie Tour
Magazine Street is where New Orleans actually eats.
Six miles of shotgun storefronts, century-old corner spots, and kitchens that have been perfecting the same dishes longer than most cities have had restaurants. This is the Garden District's main artery: colorful, alive, and layered with food culture that runs so deep locals will exchange recipes at the dinner table and then go back to the same place the next morning with their “mom ‘n dem.” If you want to understand this city, you eat here.
This three-hour walk takes you through it all. Stroll past the places that have been feeding New Orleans families for generations, behind the stories of the people who built them, and straight to the kind of meal that makes a vacation nap feel earned. No tourist menus. No manufactured atmosphere. Just the real thing.
You'll eat at five stops — seven dishes, minimum — and every one was chosen because the food means something here. There's history in every delicious bite! And stories behind them that most visitors never hear, since this tour takes you way beyond gumbo, beignets, and muffulettas. In fact, this tour was specifically designed to feed you dishes that locals love, but most visitors would never think to order them on their own!
Your guide handles everything. The reservations, the introductions, the bill. You show up curious and leave knowing New Orleans the way a local does — through what it eats, how it cooks, and why it matters. To enhance your experience, we’ll even include a local beer, poured exactly where it belongs.
Groups stay small — nine guests maximum — so you're never waiting in a pack or shouting over a crowd. You're just eating, talking, and working your way through one of the best streets in one of the best food cities in the world.
This New Orleans food tour walk covers 1/2 mile and will be held rain or shine. This tour does not accommodate vegan, low or gluten-free, kosher, or reduced-sodium dietary restrictions. This tour may not be a good fit for diets that prohibit both seafood and pork, since many dishes contain one or the other. A minimum of 2 people are required for this tour to run (may be booked separately).
Vegan New Orleans Food Tour
Yes, vegan food in New Orleans! Hear us out.
This city built its reputation on butter, lard, and things pulled straight from the Gulf — and somehow, it's also home to some of the most creative plant-based cooking in the South. That's not a compromise. That's a culinary dare, and the chefs taking it on are winning.
Over three hours in the French Quarter, you'll eat your way through stops that reveal themselves as you go. The dishes are real food: the kind that fills you up and makes you talk about it at dinner the next night. One vegan beer or soda is included because this is New Orleans and you should always have something in your hand.
You don't have to be vegan to book this tour. You just have to be hungry and a little curious about what this city can do when it plays by different rules.
No more than nine guests on our regularly-scheduled tours. Ever.
Beyond the French Quarter Food Tour
New Orleans has always been a food city. But the version most visitors experience is a fraction of the story. This is the rest of it.
NO Secrets takes you Uptown, into the Audubon neighborhood, where the restaurants are quieter, the menus are more deliberate, and the locals actually book reservations. Over three hours, you'll move through a progressive dinner at three celebrated restaurants, with multiple dishes at every stop, that begins with cocktails at the bar and ends at one of the most respected tables in the city.
Seven guests maximum. Twenty-one and older. Three hours in a part of New Orleans most visitors fly home without ever finding.
Mysteries of Voodoo Tour
Most visitors leave New Orleans thinking they understand Voodoo. They don't — because what they saw was the tourist version. The real story is older, more complex, and far more interesting than anything you'll find on a shop shelf on Bourbon Street.
Vodun began as a sophisticated West African spiritual tradition, crossed the Atlantic through the slave trade, and put down deep roots in Louisiana. Here it collided with Catholicism, colonial power, and the fierce determination of a community that refused to disappear. On this two hour walking tour, you'll finally hear that story told the way locals tell it.
New Orleans Cocktail Tour
New Orleans didn't invent drinking…but it did invent doing it better! The Sazerac, the Ramos Gin Fizz, and the Grasshopper weren't accidents. They were born in the bars, parlors, and back rooms of the French Quarter by people who believed a great drink deserved a great story.
This is a small-group walking tour through the heart of one of the world's great drinking cities. You'll visit some of the oldest and most storied bars in the country, taste cocktails that defined American drinking culture, and hear the real history behind what's in your glass. Not the rehearsed version, the actual one.
Your guide keeps the group small, just nine guests maximum, so you're never shouting over a crowd, never rushed, and never part of a pack. Drinks aren't included in the tour price, and that's by design: whether you want to share a round with friends, order your own, or simply soak it all in, the choice is entirely yours.
By the time the evening ends, you won't just know what you drank. You'll know why it matters.
Ghosts of the French Quarter Tour
New Orleans has 300 years of history packed into a few square miles — and not all of it rests easy. This two-hour walking tour through the French Quarter pulls back the curtain on the real stories behind the city's most famous legends. We're talking primary sources, newspaper accounts, and documented history…not campfire stories dressed up for tourists.
You'll trace the footsteps of Delphine Lalaurie, whose Royal Street mansion became the site of one of the most shocking crimes in American history. You'll hear the truth about the Casket Girls and the vampiric legends tied to the Old Ursuline Convent. You'll visit a fine-dining restaurant where guests and staff alike report encounters that can't quite be explained. And that’s just the start.
New Orleans has earned its reputation as the most haunted city in America. Yellow fever, hurricanes, duels, fires, slavery — the city absorbed centuries of trauma, and some of it never left. This tour is where history and the unexplained meet, explored through the eyes of guides who know the difference between a ghost story and the truth.
LGBT Queer History Tour
The French Quarter has been a haven for outsiders longer than most American cities have had a gay bar. Long before the politics caught up, New Orleans was already offering something rarer: actual space to exist.
This two-hour walking tour moves through the heart of the French Quarter, tracing the full arc of queer life in one of America's most complex and least-documented LGBTQ histories. You'll learn about hidden social clubs that operated in plain sight, underground bars that survived by knowing who to trust, and the artists, activists, and everyday people who carved out lives here on their own terms.
The stories range from quietly triumphant to genuinely devastating. The 1973 UpStairs Lounge fire killed 32 people and was largely ignored by the press, the city, and the church. Many Americans have never heard of it. It happened four blocks from where tourists eat beignets, and most people who walk past that corner today have no idea anything happened there.
The weight doesn't disappear…it just goes unacknowledged. The silence is part of the history too: the way a community grieved without the city grieving with them, the way a street can hold that kind of loss and show no sign of it. These stories have survived because people kept them alive when no one else would. And this tour continues that legacy, telling them with the specificity and care they've earned.
Garden District Tour
New Orleans was never supposed to share power. When American merchants arrived after the Louisiana Purchase, the Creole families who had built this city made their position clear: they were not welcome here. So the Americans did what Americans do. They built something better.
The Garden District was their answer. Block after block of grand houses rising just upriver from the French Quarter, each one designed to outshine the last. What looks like a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood today is actually the physical record of one of the most fascinating cultural rivalries in American history. In this two-hour walking tour, your guide doesn't just point at facades. They bring you the stories behind them…who built here and why, what it cost, what it meant, and what it says about this city today.
You'll stop at the gates of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, one of New Orleans' most atmospheric above-ground burial grounds. The cemetery is closed to the public, but standing outside its gate, your guide will tell you the real story of why this city buries its dead the way it does. Yellow fever epidemics that killed thousands, family tombs built to last generations, the ideology of the times, and a climate and geography that made underground burial a little tougher. It's one of the most memorable stops on the tour.
Groups stay small with no more than nine people. Every guide adds their own expertise and personal stories to their tour. That's not a gimmick. It means what you hear is researched, considered, and told by someone who genuinely cares about getting it right…and has lived it.
French Quarter History Tour
The French Quarter is one of the most photographed neighborhoods in America. It's also one of the most misunderstood.
This isn't a walk through the highlights reel. It's a small-group morning tour (nine guests maximum) that takes you beyond the surface of the Quarter's most iconic streets and into the stories that don't make it onto the plaques.
You'll learn why the French Quarter isn't actually very French, what really happened behind the closed doors of the city's most powerful families, and how the neighborhood survived fires, floods, epidemics, and economic collapse to become what it is today.
Your guide lovingly calls this city home. They know the stories locals tell…the ones that got edited out of the official version. By the time the tour ends, you'll see the Quarter differently. And once you do, you can't unsee it.
Beyond the guide book:
Our storytellers bring New Orleans to life
Our local guides don't just show you New Orleans—they share the stories, legends, and insider knowledge that bring this magical city to life!
Each guide enriches their tours with personalized insights and adapts the experience based on what sparks your curiosity. They are also watching to weave in spontaneous New Orleans cultural events (like a Second Line parade)!
It's about creating those unscripted moments that transform a simple tour into an authentic New Orleans experience you'll never forget.
Fun
You're here to have fun—and we're here to make it legendary! We'll share the secrets, stories, and hidden spots you'd never discover on your own, turning your already great time into an absolutely unforgettable adventure.
You're here to have fun—and we're here to make it legendary! We'll share the secrets, stories, and hidden spots you'd never discover on your own, turning your already great time into an absolutely unforgettable adventure.
Transformational
Our tours go beyond collecting memories—they create meaningful connections that open your mind, touch your heart, and inspire new perspectives. Through authentic encounters with New Orleans' culture...
Our tours go beyond collecting memories—they create meaningful connections that open your mind, touch your heart, and inspire new perspectives. Through authentic encounters with New Orleans' culture, history, and people, you'll discover not just a remarkable city, but new aspects of yourself. This is travel that transforms, leaving you with lasting insights and a deeper appreciation for the world around you.
Authentic
We make sure every experience is authentic to its core, allowing you to take in the sights and stories just like a local so you'll walk away taking a piece of this great city with you.
We make sure every experience is authentic to its core, allowing you to take in the sights and stories just like a local so you'll walk away taking a piece of this great city with you.
What Makes New Orleans (and a New Orleans Secrets Experience) Truly Special
New Orleans is a vibrant city filled with culture, history, and unforgettable experiences - but it's the people behind it that makes it truly special.
In this group interview, our founders and guides come together to share their love for the city, their commitment to meaningful storytelling, and the joy of creating unforgettable moments for every guest. Watch to see how shared passion, collaboration, and a little New Orleans magic come together on every tour to provide truly memorable and meaningful experiences.
Frequently asked questions
Welcome to New Orleans, the “Northern-most Caribbean City in the World!” Try our fantastic Creole-style red beans and rice! Enjoy our vibrant house colors! And expect a little rain now and then.
Daily Showers: Especially in Summertime, most days will show rain in the forecast. But don’t fret! As a sub-tropic climate, that often means daily showers that last about 20 minutes…if it rains at all! We suggest carrying a small travel umbrella or poncho, just in case you’re caught by surprise.
Severe Weather: If we are under threat of severe weather to occur during your tour, we will reach out within 2hrs of your tour start time to check the possibility of a delayed start, reschedule, or cancellation with refund. Severe weather is a safety concern (e.g. lightening within one mile, tornado warning, severe flash flood). If it’s simply some rain or a typical Southern thunderstorm, the show must go on! We have accommodations to help you stay dry, like taking advantage of French Quarter overhangs, but definitely bring an umbrella. It’s those short, regular showers that sustain our gorgeous trees and tropical flowers!
Great question! Because if your guide is doing it right, you’ll never see the work involved…so how would you know? Here’s a little of what goes on behind the scenes:
Expertise and Knowledge: Tour guides are destination experts. They spend significant time researching and studying the history, culture, and local attractions to provide you with accurate information and insightful commentary for an interesting and engaging tour.
Personalized Experience: A skilled tour guide goes above and beyond to tailor the tour to the interests and preferences of the group. They may adjust the itinerary, share insider tips, or offer additional information that enhances your experience. In other words, they’re NOT reciting a script; instead they are choosing from their vast story and fun fact options to create a personalized and enjoyable journey for you.
Excellent Service: While regaling you with interesting stories and facts, they are also managing logistics and ensuring everyone’s safety and comfort. Where they stand to tell stories, which route they take, the venues they visit…none of it is random. They strive to create a smooth and well-organized tour, anticipating and addressing any issues that may arise.
Professionalism and Communication: A good tour guide is friendly and welcoming to all guests and possesses excellent communication skills. They watch closely to see what makes their guests’ eyes widen with enjoyment, and then lean into that more. They also take care to make complex information accessible and engaging for all participants.
Livelihood and Motivation: We won’t sugar coat it. Tour guiding is a hospitality profession that heavily relies on tips to supplement their income. No one gets rich in this profession; they do it because they are passionately in love with New Orleans and want to share her magic with you! By tipping generously, you contribute to their financial well-being and help motivate them to continue providing exceptional service to future travelers.
We love our fur babies, too! But no matter how well behaved pets are, they always distract the other guests who tend to watch them, love on them, and miss out on the tour they paid to attend. Oops! There is also a concern for potential allergy issues.
Many of our tours do allow pets on a Private tour. This also gives us flexibility to address any pet needs (like getting a bowl of water) along the route. Simply select the Private option when booking, and then please also notify the office so a non-allergic guide can be assigned to your tour. (Please note that Food and Cocktail tours include restaurants and bars that do not allow entry to pets, so someone will need to remain outside with the animal.)
If you’d like to bring a stroller, please let us know so that we can prepare ahead. This is especially important on our Food tours. The only tours where strollers are not allowed are our 21+ tours, since we will be entering bars where children are not allowed.
We know not everything goes as planned and “life” happens! That’s why we offer two ticket types, one of which offers a refund up to 24 hours prior to your tour! But we ARE running a business, and especially when there are only 9 people maximum on a tour, last-second cancels make a big impact on our company. Here’s why:
We care about our guides!
Most people have steady work hours and can make financial decisions based on a known amount of income. Not tour guides.
Imagine setting aside 3 to 4 hours of your day or more (plus commute) weeks in advance, and then at the last second, that work is cancelled, and you’re not being compensated for it! And it can happen multiple times per week! How could you ever have peace-of mind that you could pay your bills? Provide for yourself and your family? That’s exactly the life of a tour guide.
Guides are paid only when they go out on tour and by the number of guests on that tour. To provide a responsible wage, we commit to paying them 24 hours before any tour. That way, they will be minimally compensated for the scheduled time slot they have set aside (and declined other work) to provide the tour.
Guides rely heavily on tips to pay their bills, like other Hospitality workers do. With just 9 people per tour, if a family of 4 cancels on short notice leaving little time for us to resell their tickets, the guide would not only lose pay for that family of 4, but the tip as well! A double whammy!
We care about our partners!
We strive to support as many locally-owned, small businesses as possible, many of which are owned by women and/or people of color. Often times they must decline other customers in order to save space for our tour groups. Sometimes this requires pre-payment on behalf of our tour guests. Note: We intentionally pay full prices and tip your restaurant servers and bartenders 20 percent as one way of contributing to our local economy.
It happens more than you think!
Hopefully you rarely need to change vacation plans or deal with flight cancellations or untimely illnesses. Reality is, one isn’t a big deal. But we see several last-minute cancels and No-shows per week…sometimes multiples in the same day or tour! It might be one occurrence to you, but when everyone’s occurrences are piled together, they add up quickly! With only 9 people (at most!) per tour, there simply isn’t room to absorb this expense.
For Private, Custom, or Multi-Day Tours: Your Cancellation Window is different than the regularly-scheduled Public Tour policy above. It is not only nearly impossible to rebook the entire time slot being held for your event with a different customer, but we often are under contract with venues that will not refund the deposit we made on behalf of your tour. We will absolutely try to recoup and refund as much as we can for you! Please refer to the Invoice presented at time of booking for specific details pertaining to your event.
Force Majeure
“Force Majeure” means any circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including without limitation acts of nature, terrorist activities, insurrection, explosion, flood, tempest, forceful wind, fire or accident, war or threat of war declared or undeclared, sabotage, civil disturbance, labor strikes, requisition, sickness, quarantine, government intervention, weather conditions, and unforeseen circumstances.
If we and/or any of our Suppliers are affected by Force Majeure, we and our Suppliers shall be entitled to, and may in our sole discretion, vary or cancel any itinerary or arrangement in relation to the tour, and choose to offer future travel credits or no refunds of money paid. This includes losses or expenses due to flight or other transportation cancellations or delays.
Responsibility with Third Party Vendors: Certain services reserved by New Orleans Secrets LLC for inclusion in a tour itinerary, including but not limited to transportation, accommodations, restaurants, site locations/venues, sightseeing, and activities may be purchased from various independent suppliers not affiliated with New Orleans Secrets LLC (referred to as “Third Party Supplier(s)”, “Vendor(s)” or “Supplier(s)”). New Orleans Secrets LLC takes reasonable care in selecting competent, reliable, and qualified suppliers based on information that is reasonably available to us.
That said, we act only as an intermediary for these Third-Party Suppliers and do not and cannot control the quality of their services. You acknowledge that you are aware and clearly understand that these Third-Party Suppliers are independent contractors, are not managed by New Orleans Secrets LLC, and are not agents or employees of New Orleans Secrets LLC. In the event of an injury, damage to property, delay or any other loss, compensation must be sought from the Third-Party Suppliers, not from New Orleans Secrets LLC. You understand further that each of these Third-Party Suppliers are subject to the laws of the state or country in which the service is provided. The liability of Third-Party Suppliers may be limited by their tariffs, conditions of carriage, tickets and vouchers, and international conventions and agreements.
We must adhere to our cancellation policy to protect our ability to run experiences and to maintain our price structures. Please don’t ask us to make exceptions. This includes personal emergencies, flight issues, or Force Majeure. There is no refund for arriving late or leaving a trip early. We highly recommend purchasing travel insurance to protect your investment and researching plans that cover pre-existing conditions and/or have a “Cancel for any Reason” clause.
Please consider purchasing Travel Insurance for Emergency Medical and Evacuation Coverage and for protection against Trip Cancellation.
Medical Coverage:
Choosing to travel involves some amount of risk. You never know when a simple fall may result in a broken bone or twisted ankle. Injuries may prevent you from continuing your trip and necessitate a visit to the emergency room. This can get expensive. We recommend purchasing Travel Insurance even if you already have medical insurance since some expenses may not be included or are not fully covered by your policy.
Trip Cancellation Insurance:
New Orleans Secrets Tours has a cancellation policy that we must abide by to protect our ability to continue offering trips, and to protect your experience in case others cancel. Unfortunately cancellations do happen, sometimes within the period of time where we can’t offer a refund. In many of these instances, Trip Cancellation Insurance covers forfeited, non-refundable deposits or payments up to the limits purchased. Please consider protecting your investment! We often see last minute cancellations due to illness or injury of the participant or a family member, and all of this would be covered by trip insurance. To inquire for more details or for a more detailed description of coverage or information on more extensive plans or coverage, please contact Allianz Travel at 866-884-3556 or visit https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/ or Travel Guard at 800-826-1300 or visit their website at www.travelguard.com. We are not affiliated with any insurance provider and do not receive a commission – this is solely about your protection!
Yes! TICKETS ARE TRANSFERABLE. You may resell your tickets on your own and alert New Orleans Secrets IN WRITING the names(s) replacing yours along with their email address and mobile phone number.
We accept all major credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
No. Since our public tour groups max out at 9 guests, we can’t ever guarantee that there will be space for you; advance reservations are required.
We offer two types of tickets: non-refundable and refundable. Refundable tickets allow you to make a change or cancel for a full refund up to 24 hours before the tour starts. Non-refundable tickets cannot be changed or refunded. All Private Tours have a 72-hour cancellation policy.
Yes. People love receiving tours as a gift — they never collect dust in the back of the closet! 😉 You can buy them on our web site or just give us a call to purchase.
When you’ve selected your tour, there is a spot in the check out page to apply a gift card. It’s that easy! You can also just give us a call.
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