St. Louis Cemetery No. 1: Only With a Guided Tour, and What the Alternatives Are
4 min read
The answer first
If you want to go inside St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, plan on a guided tour. The booking page of the Walking Tour Inside St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 says the cemetery is closed to the general public and open only for the operator’s authorized tours. The walk lasts 55 minutes, with a group of up to 20 people, and costs €22.43 per person; it is rated 4.6 / 5 from 1,955 reviews. GetYourGuide lists 22 cemetery tours, from €17.94.
What the tour at No. 1 covers
You check in and meet your guide at the Basin St. Station Visitor Center, 501 Basin St, which the page says has exhibits on New Orleans, a café, restrooms and a gift shop. From there the group walks to the cemetery gates. The page lists a 45-minute walk through the cemetery, the history of the site and the city’s burial customs, and stops at the tomb of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen, and at the pyramid-shaped tomb the actor Nicolas Cage had built.
The page carries a wheelchair-accessible label. Cemetery paths are a different matter from a label, so ask the operator how the route is handled before you book.
Four cemetery tours side by side
| Tour | What the booking page says | Length | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking Tour Inside St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 | Starts at Basin St. Station, group of up to 20, wheelchair-accessible label | 55 min | €22.43 | 4.6 / 5 (1,955 reviews) |
| Cemetery Tour | Walking tour of several of the city’s oldest cemeteries; meets at the Morning Call Coffee Shop, 5101 Canal Blvd; group of up to 14 | 2 h | €25.12 | 4.6 / 5 (643 reviews) |
| St. Louis Cemetery #3 Guided Walking Tour | An active cemetery established in 1854; meets at the cemetery, 3421 Esplanade Ave; group of up to 18 | 1.5 h | €22.43 | 4.9 / 5 (23 reviews) |
| Cemetery Tour at Night | After-dark bus tour with a visit to Odd Fellows Rest and EMF detectors; starts at New Orleans Ghost Adventures Tours | 2 h | €40.19 | 4.5 / 5 (1,805 reviews) |
Which one fits
- You want the famous cemetery and little time: the 55-minute walk at No. 1. It is the shortest and the only one of the four whose page says it goes inside St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 itself.
- You want more cemeteries in one outing: the two-hour Cemetery Tour. The page mentions several of the oldest cities of the dead; ask the operator which ones, and whether No. 1 is among them.
- You want a larger site: St. Louis Cemetery #3, which the page describes as an active burial site that still averages one burial a day. It is a different cemetery, not a replacement for No. 1.
- You want a spooky evening: the night tour. It is a bus tour with a ghost-hunting theme, and the cemetery it enters is Odd Fellows Rest, not No. 1. Its page lists children under 10 as not suitable.
If ghost stories are what you are after rather than cemeteries, browse the ghost, voodoo and vampire tours instead.
Our recommendation
For most visitors the 55-minute walk at No. 1 is the one to book: it is the cemetery people come for, and it starts at a visitor centre with facilities. Pick the two-hour tour or the #3 walk if you want a longer visit. Browse all cemetery tours to see dates and current prices.
