Pub Crawls in New Orleans

New Orleans has two pub crawl options and they cover different cities: Bourbon Street is the tourist version, Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is the local one. The pub crawl format maps better onto Frenchmen than onto Bourbon, where the street itself is the experience rather than the bars on it.

Bourbon Street's French Quarter circuit is what most pub crawl operators run: Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at the quieter end, Pat O'Brien's for the infamous Hurricanes, and a sequence of open-air bars running toward Canal Street. The format works here because the bars are close together and the street is pedestrianised at night, but the experience is less about discovering places than moving through a well-mapped tourist corridor. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, eight blocks from the French Quarter, offers the alternative: the Spotted Cat Music Club, d.b.a., and the Maison run live jazz and blues sets every night, with no cover charge at most venues. Pub crawl operators who run Frenchmen routes are worth seeking out specifically, as the format there involves arriving at each venue between sets rather than just buying drinks and moving on. New Orleans has no last-call law; bars stay open as long as they choose.