After the cruise: jazz on foot

A boat and a club are different evenings

On the boat you sit or stand on a deck, the band plays for the length of the cruise, and the river is part of the show. In a club you move between rooms, order at a bar and hear several bands, often in different styles. Both belong to New Orleans music. The practical point is that the cruise has a fixed sailing, so decide whether you want one evening that does both or two evenings that each do one thing well.

Read next: New Orleans jazz cruise options

Frenchmen Street

Frenchmen Street runs from Esplanade Avenue, just inland from the Mississippi, and its best-known section is three blocks in the Faubourg Marigny, just downriver from the French Quarter. Since the 1980s that section has developed as the centre of many popular live-music venues. Wikipedia notes that as Bourbon Street became dominated by tourism, Frenchmen developed as a place for locals to enjoy live music. Check each venue's own listings, because the music changes by night.

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall is a jazz venue on St Peter Street in the French Quarter. It began as an art gallery in the 1950s, where the owner invited local jazz musicians to play for tips, and it took the name Preservation Hall in 1961. The building is associated with a house band, a record label and a non-profit foundation. Traditional New Orleans jazz is what the hall has long been known for, so it pairs well with a night on a paddlewheeler.

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street runs twelve blocks through the French Quarter, from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue, and hosts many bars, restaurants and strip clubs. It was named in 1721 for the House of Bourbon, France's ruling family. It is a famous street and an easy walk, but Wikipedia's account of Frenchmen Street suggests locals look elsewhere for live music. Treat Bourbon Street as a place to see, and choose a music room by its listings.

A guided music walk

The cards on the home page include a three-hour guided walk to the music clubs and cocktail bars of Frenchmen Street, with a VIP entry that skips queues and one cocktail and one shot. Guests describe four places in one night, each with a different musical style. It suits people who want variety and a guide to pick the rooms. It does not suit anyone who wants one band, a seat and a long set, which is what the riverboat gives you.

Congo Square by day

Congo Square lies in Louis Armstrong Park in the Tremé neighbourhood, facing the French Quarter across Rampart Street. It is famous for its influence on the history of African-American music, especially jazz, because enslaved Africans gathered there on Sundays for music and dance in the colonial and early American periods. A short visit in daylight is a good complement to an evening on the river, and it tells the story that the boats and clubs rest on.

Read next: Riverboat jazz: the history

Who this isn't for

Skip this plan if you want a single, relaxed evening with one ticket: the riverboat alone does that. Skip the club streets if crowds or standing rooms are not for you. And skip any plan that depends on a particular band being on, because club lineups change by night and the venues set them. Use this guide to choose where to look, then check each venue's own listings for the evening you pick.