Tourist office New Orleans
New Orleans & Company, the official tourism bureau of the city and the former New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, keeps no walk-in tourist information office of its own. It helps visitors online, through an Ask the Experts form, on social media and by phone, and the Louisiana Office of Tourism lists no state welcome centre inside the city either. In person, visitors turn to 2 points run by other public bodies, listed below: the National Park Service's French Quarter Visitor Center on Decatur Street and the customer service office of the Regional Transit Authority on Canal Street.
Tourist information points in New Orleans
New Orleans & Company answers visitor questions online and by phone rather than from a walk-in office. The two points below help visitors in person, but each belongs to another public body.
French Quarter Visitor Center
Location: 419 Decatur Street, between Conti and St. Louis Streets, a few blocks from Jackson Square
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 09:30 to 16:30; closed on Sunday and Monday, on federal holidays and on Mardi Gras
Not run by New Orleans & Company: run by the National Park Service, with rangers, maps and free exhibits on south Louisiana.
RTA Customer Service Office
Location: 2817 Canal Street, at the main offices of the Regional Transit Authority in Mid-City
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 08:30 to 16:30; no weekend hours are published
Not run by New Orleans & Company: run by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, which sells Jazzy Passes for its buses, streetcars and ferries.
Find out more about New Orleans
Find out more about New Orleans
The New Orleans guide on Tourist Office sets out the things to do in New Orleans in one place, starting with a one day route from the National WWII Museum to Bourbon Street, St Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square, then on to Cafe du Monde, the French Market and the Moon Walk by the river.
It also picks out what costs nothing, from City Park and Louis Armstrong Park to Audubon Park and Magazine Street, the music of Frenchmen Street and Preservation Hall, the Garden District along the streetcar line, and the concerts and games coming up in the weeks ahead.
National and local holidays in New Orleans
Holidays in New Orleans come in three layers, and each one closes a different set of doors. The 11 federal holidays apply to federal offices, including the French Quarter Visitor Center of the National Park Service, which also closes on Mardi Gras. Louisiana adds its own legal holidays under La. R.S. 1:55, the days when state departments close, and the governor can proclaim more by executive proclamation, which happened for Lundi Gras and 2 January in 2026. On top of both, the City of New Orleans sets a holiday schedule for its own agencies: in 2026 it closes on Mardi Gras and Good Friday as well as on the days marked local below, keeps 12 October as Indigenous People's Day and does not list Washington's Birthday.
National holidays in the United States 2026
- 1 January New Year's Day
- 19 January Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 16 February Washington's Birthday
- 25 May Memorial Day
- 19 June Juneteenth National Independence Day
- 3 July Independence Day, observed on the Friday as 4 July falls on a Saturday
- 7 September Labor Day
- 12 October Columbus Day
- 11 November Veterans Day
- 26 November Thanksgiving Day
- 25 December Christmas Day
Local holidays in New Orleans 2026
- 2 January New Year holiday, proclaimed by the governor, state
- 16 February Lundi Gras, proclaimed by the governor, state
- 17 February Mardi Gras Day, state
- 3 April Good Friday, state
- 28 August Hurricane Katrina Remembrance, a one-off day for the 21st anniversary, local
- 3 November Election Day, state
- 27 November Veterans Day, as observed by the city, local
- 24 December Christmas Eve, local
- 31 December New Year's Eve, local
These calendars govern public offices only. They say nothing about museums, restaurants, bars or shops, which set their own hours, so the opening times of each attraction are the ones to check before a holiday visit, above all around Mardi Gras.