French Quarter Walking Tour by Friends of the Cabildo

My tour guide, Simone, was fabulous. She provided the historic context and facts that made this interesting and beautiful area come alive for me. Great places are created over time and with care and deliberation. Simone unveiled the many layers that are the French quarter we see and admire today. Can’t recommend highly enough!

We chose this walking tour over the many offered and was quite pleased. Lynn, our guide, was accompanied by Josh and between the 2 we learned a lot about the French Quarter’s history and architecture. She used some maps and prints to add context– the maps really helped us understand the growth of the area. Lynn also included a helpful hand out with recommendations based on FAQ she’s received while giving the tour. The ticket includes a self-​guided tour of the house, and the volunteers who were putting up Christmas decorations answered our numerous questions. A thumbs up and worth the cost, especially since we know it helps the State Museum volunteer group!

Actually never got on a tour because when we showed up at the museum meeting spot at the appointed time, the woman working that day told us they were not giving tours due to the French quarter festival in the city. However, the way she said it was, «it’s obvious that we can’t give a tour today». While we understand that the crowds that day were out of the ordinary, the website states the precise times of available tours and it should have been updated if the company wasn’t going to be able to offer the tour that day. Also, after being greeted so rudely by the woman at their shop, we noticed a sandwich board sign just outside their doorway stating, «French quarter walking tours today at 10:30 & 1:30.» So, why did the sign indicate a tour was available? We decided to bring this matter to the woman’s attention and this time she actually shooed us out of the store with a swipe if her hand! How rude can you be? How about a more appropriate response such as, «I’m so sorry we won’t be able to offer a tour as planned today due to the large crowds, we hope you will be able to come back another day.» Well Friends of the Cabildo, we were able to arrange a wonderful walking tour of the French Quarter that day with a company called Free Tours By Foot and the guide was wonderful and informative and was able to navigate thru the crowds with ease. We also saw another company giving tours that day as well, so you missed the boat and in the process treated your potential customers extremely inappropriately.

Wow, what an awesome tour! We had Nancy as our guide — it was a private tour with just my husband and I. Nancy was friendly, knowledgeable — taught us all about the history of the people and culture of New Orleans. She also talked about Katrina, flood control and other great details. Be ready for walking and the heat — it was a two hour tour. This tour was one of my favorite parts of our NOLA trip!

SIGH. My first 1 star review on Unilocal.It had to happen someday.
This is a real shame because I’m totally blanking on the lady’s name who gave us the tour because I definitely would not recommend her. All of the tour guides at Friends of the Cabildo are volunteers so perhaps that explains how relatively inexpensive the tour tickets were ($ 15/​person, $ 10 for students) but also the low quality. What I was hoping would be a fascinating history tour of the lively French Quarter turned out to be a 2 hour slog through random back alleys and I saw maybe one monument of any significance. As a lover of culture and history I was really disappointed. Man that lady could TALK. She knew a lot of random information but was not very clear about communicating it. It also was NOT much of a WALKING tour as it was marketed to be. We would walk, sit for 10 minutes while she babbled, and then move to another random bench and sit again while she continued. I was hoping to get some good legwork in and see a lot of parts of the quarter, but the loop ended up being only a mile or so. I feel like I could have seen more on my own with a pocket guide to the city than what I learned on this tour. AVOID.

We went on a walking tour with Friends of The Cabildo and found it to be a decent but not exceptional walking tour. Our guide didn’t have a huge personality and could have spoken a little louder, but she was very knowledgable about the area. I wouldn’t recommend against going with Friends of the Cabildo, but I do imagine there are better walking tours out there.

Very good history tour. True history of French Quarter, not really about Bourbon Street, or Mardi Gras in any way. Our tour guide was Carol and she took us from Jackson Square passed the French Market and around passed the Ursuline Covenant and back. We learned of Andrew Jackson, the wars, fires, and how French Quarter was inhabited. We took a two hour tour, but we walked at a leisurely pace and it was more like 2 ½ hours. $ 15 a person.

the lady is pretty nice and talkative. It is kind of the first american history class i ve ever taken. it is interesting that u can again and again hear how spanish and french taken this district.
u can also get student discount for 10 bucks!
highly recommended!
give four star cuz i m not a native speaker and keep listening to american history is kind of tedious for me!

Great and informative walkign tour of the Quarter. 2 hours for 15 bucks. its a bargain and you will get soem good tips from the docent if you ask…

Highly recommended. For $ 15 each, we were given a two hour walking tour of the french quarter. Our guide was Madeleine. She is fantastic. Walks fast so you better keep up! Very knowledgeable, interesting and thorough. There wasn’t a question about the city, history, or culture that she wasn’t able to answer. Friends of the Cabildo is a non-​profit organization and first-​class. In addition to the tour we were given two free passes to the 1850 house, which provided a nice inside look into how the well to do’s of the time lived. This is the tour you want to take!

What an amazing way to get to know the French Quarter. Our guide was Barb, whose love for the town is very evident. She was clear, well versed in the history, and went out of her way to make us feel comfortable on the two hour plus tour. She even found a way to show us the courtyard of her friend’s converted slave quarter house. Really interesting and worth the $ 15, plus the money goes to a good cause: restoring and preserving historical sites throughout the city.

Very nice tour. I was the only person who showed up for the tour, but they gave it to me anyway. My tour guide was Adam, who was a great companion for two hours. It was informative, fun, and informal.
All the tour guides are licensed and very well trained, and they actually volunteer their time with this organization, so all of your fee goes to the Louisiana State Museum. And the people giving the tours really love what they do.

We loved this tour… our guide, Betsy Routh is a local resident who lives in the FQ and she is a virtual fountain of knowledge!
Well worth the $ 15 cost, as your ticket will also gain you admission into the «1850 House», a restored FQ row house on Jackson Square.

When people come to the city, one of the things I always suggest they do is a walking tour of the Quarter. There is no better way to start to understand why NOLA is what it is than to explore the oldest neighborhood. The Friends of the Cabildo guides are well-​trained and have access to a vast wealth of historical resources. Well worth the price.

Completely satisfied with the quality of our tour with Friends of the Cabildo. The only disappointment was that our group was so large it was split into two and our guide focused on architecture while the other focused on something else? I was very satisfied with the information our guide gave us but I was also left wondering if we were missing something that the other guide would cover? Ah well, still an extremely enjoyable tour. Great price, great pace. Well-​informed and very pleasant guide. The other nice point is that a self-​guided tour of the 1850 house is included in the price of the walking tour. This was actually a very interesting and nice tid-​bit that we weren’t expecting.

We had looked into several tours during our visit to New Orleans many which seem quite nice, but some are extremely pricey… my husband pulled a brochure on the Friends of the Cabildo Tours… and what makes them different from the others is their guides are trained and have so much historical knowledge to share with you. The cost couldn’t compare to the others as it was a mere $ 12 per adult and kids under 12 were free (with adult). We were so impressed with this detailed 2 hour walking tour and highly recommend it! It’s the perfect choice to those who are looking for some top-​notch, in depth knowledge of the French Quarter without being gouged by some of the other high profit making tours companies.