Walking Bayou St. John in New Orleans

The banks at Moss Street

The Bayou St. John Waterfront (Moss Street banks) is open ground with no door policy and nothing to pay. Spanish-moss live oaks lean over the path, and the water sits flat and green-brown between the two grassy banks. Picnic blankets go down among the runners, and paddleboarders work the middle of the channel.

Festivals and drum circles use these banks through the year, and you need nobody's permission to picnic or paddle. Walk the full length and you cross the whole neighbourhood, cottages on one side of the water and the park waiting at the head.

The Magnolia Bridge

Magnolia Bridge (Moss Street at Harding Drive), also called the Cabrini Bridge, is a low steel-truss swing footbridge painted dull green. It sits just above the bayou surface, close enough that the water reflects the trusses. The deck is composite plank with a thin cable barrier, sound since a $1.3 million overhaul finished in 2019.

It is free, unstaffed and open day and night to walkers, cyclists and dogs, and no vehicles use it. Cabrini High School buildings stand behind the oaks on the far bank. This is the most photographed object in the neighbourhood, and it looks best at sunset.

On June 23 the bridge is the traditional gathering point for St. John's Eve head-washing rituals, so expect crowds that night.

Paddling with Kayak-iti-Yat

Tandem sit-on-top kayaks pass under the low green trusses of the Magnolia Bridge most days of the week, paddlers in sun hats and life vests, oak canopy and Creole rooflines on both banks. Kayak-iti-Yat runs by reservation only, six days a week, year round. The two-hour Big Easy Bayou tour is $55 per person, and the four-hour Pontchartrain Paddle is $100.

The bayou is flat and sheltered, so first-timers manage it without trouble. Spring and autumn are the easiest months to book, and you should check the forecast before you go, because summer afternoons bring thunderstorms. Private hire starts at eight tickets.

The Pitot House on Moss Street

A formal garden of crepe myrtle and banana palms sets the Pitot House (1440 Moss Street) back from the bank. The house went up in 1799, white stuccoed and two storeys under a steep hipped roof, with deep columned galleries wrapping both floors and tall French doors behind them. It is the only Creole colonial house in New Orleans open to the public, and James Pitot, the city's first American mayor, lived in it.

Guided tours leave on the hour, Wednesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the last one at 2 p.m. Adults pay $15, and students and seniors 65 and over pay $12. The opening window is narrow, so plan the day around it. For group tours and out-of-hours visits, email [email protected] for a quote.

City Park at the head of the water

Bayou St. John runs straight into the eastern edge of New Orleans City Park, so the water walk and the oak groves make one continuous outing. The grounds are free and open sunrise to sunset every day, 1,300 acres of ancient live oaks hung with Spanish moss. The white Doric colonnade of the 1907 Peristyle stands beside Bayou Metairie, and Big Lake has a paved loop and fishing piers.

Keep going into the 60-acre Couturie Forest, where dark swampy boardwalks hold the best bird-watching inside the city limits. You book and pay for rides, rentals and pavilion hire separately from the grounds.

The museum and the sculpture garden

Where Esplanade meets City Park, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden close off the head of the bayou. The museum is a Beaux-Arts neoclassical pavilion with a six-column Ionic portico, wide front steps and a lagoon in front, standing at the end of a long live-oak avenue. Both halves take walk-ins.

Admission is $23 for out-of-state adults and $18 for Louisiana residents, and under-19s get in free every day. The sculpture garden behind the museum has no ticket at all and opens seven days, 11 acres of pine, magnolia and bald cypress around mirrored lagoons, crossed by footbridges and set with large modern bronzes. The garden alone is worth the walk up from the bridge.

Esplanade Avenue

Tall cast-iron gates on Esplanade Avenue open St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 onto straight white lanes of above-ground marble and granite tombs. Family mausoleums carry iron crosses and marble urns, and oven vaults fill the perimeter wall. It opened in 1854 on the site of an old leper burial ground. Entry is free and you do not need a guide.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday, and holiday closures go unannounced, so come in the morning.

Degas House (Esplanade Avenue) stands 1 km down from the bayou, a 12-minute walk from the water. It is a tall Italianate mansion in pale cream, bracketed eaves above full-width galleries on both floors behind iron railings, under deep oak shade. Edgar Degas lived here, and no other home or studio of his is open to the public anywhere. The period rooms hang reproductions of the paintings he made in them.

Tours run Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nine guest rooms and suites let at $$$, and a breakfast-and-tour package costs $50 per person. The house also takes whole-property events and weddings.

Café Degas (Esplanade Avenue) has worked this stretch of oak shade since 1980. A mature pecan tree grows straight up through the floor and roof of the covered timber deck, over white paper-topped tables, string lights and ceiling fans. Ask for a deck table when you book. The room is small and reservation-driven, and a party of more than six needs to book well ahead. It closes Mondays. Prices run $$$.

Ponce de Leon Street

Le Ponce (3133 Ponce de Leon) bakes the bread for Café Degas next door. It holds the Creole cottage that was the Fair Grinds coffeehouse, now closed. Baguettes and croissants sit behind glass, the menu is chalked up, and jambon-et-brie comes on a fresh baguette. Counter service runs daily 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with small metal tables on a shaded patio. Prices run $.

1000 Figs (Ponce de Leon) grew out of the Fat Falafel food truck. Green falafel, hummus and pickled turnips come out of the open kitchen on platters with warm pita, in a bright storefront with teal-painted trim and a handful of close-packed wooden tables. It is the easy answer in Faubourg St. John for anyone avoiding meat. The room takes no reservations, and a takeaway mezze box is the practical move for a picnic on the bank. Hours are Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sunday. Prices run $$.

Swirl Wine Bar & Market (Ponce de Leon) lines a narrow shopfront floor to ceiling with bottles on raw wood shelving, the selection chalked above the counter. It leans European and heavily Italian. Drink at the stools or the sidewalk tables under the awning, or carry a bottle the two minutes down to the water. Small plates arrive from the restaurant next door. Hours are Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Arrange tastings and private events in advance. Prices run $$.

Parkway on Hagan Avenue

Parkway Bakery & Tavern (Hagan Avenue) has been open since 1911, and its roast beef po-boy is the benchmark for the whole city. They arrive foil-wrapped, dripping gravy onto paper. Eat at the red-topped bar stools under walls of signed photos, or at the picnic tables out back by the Lafitte Greenway. A neon 'Parkway' sign glows on the green-and-cream corner building.

Orders go over the counter, first-come, with no bookings taken, and the queue is long at lunch and on Jazz Fest weekends. It closes Mondays and Tuesdays. The walk from the bayou's western bank takes five minutes. Prices run $.

Pal's Lounge after dark

Pal's Lounge (N Rendon Street) pours cocktails at dive prices, daily from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. The bar is dark wood crowded with kitsch and taxidermy, with pinball and Saints pennants and neon in the window, and lights strung over the small back patio. The Gingerita is the drink to order. Locals stand three deep for Saints games. Prices run $.

Racing at the Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots (Gentilly Boulevard) runs its 155th season from November 19, 2026 to March 21, 2027. America's third-oldest racetrack is a long low grandstand facing a one-mile dirt oval with an inner turf course, white rails and a fringe of palm and oak, with a vintage green-and-white sign out on the Gentilly frontage.

Grandstand general admission is free on many race days. Clubhouse and Grandstand boxes carry a six-seat minimum, booked through the track or Ticketmaster. The Jazz Fest stages stand on the infield each April, which is why the turf is relaid every year.

Before you go

Café Degas closes Monday, Parkway closes Monday and Tuesday, 1000 Figs closes Sunday, and the Pitot House keeps a Wednesday-to-Friday week. Reserve the kayak tour, and book a Café Degas deck table before you arrive.

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