A Volunteer Guide's French Quarter, Starting at the 1850 House
Two hours on foot through the French Quarter with a city-licensed volunteer, plus a ticket to the 1850 House upstairs.
Friends of the Cabildo is a nonprofit, organized in 1956, that raises money for the Louisiana State Museum, and this two-hour French Quarter walk is one of the ways it does it. The guides are city-licensed volunteers. Every ticket also covers the 1850 House, a museum rowhouse above the shop where the walk begins. The listing pitches the tour as history, architecture and folklore, and names no fixed stops beyond the museum.
Departures are 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM. One booking takes up to eight travelers, and on the booking page children 12 and under go free while ages 13 to 18 pay a youth rate.
French Quarter Walking Tour With Comp 1850 House Museum AdmissionTwo hours with a licensed guide from the 1850 House Museum Store on Jackson Square, museum admission included.www.viator.comThe Guide Shapes the Walk
Friends of the Cabildo puts its guide class at almost 100 hours over one month. Trainees design and practice their own French Quarter walk, pass a one-on-one tour with an evaluator and a critiqued tour with a group, and prepare for the written exam the city requires before it licenses a guide. After that they commit to two years as volunteers, usually giving two tours a month.
Two people who book the same listing can come home describing different walks. One recent visitor's guide leaned on Sicilian New Orleans; another visitor called theirs an architecture tour. A September 2026 visitor wrote that the guide "tailored the tour to my interests."
The 1850 House Sells Its Last Ticket at 3:30 PM
The Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba designed and financed the two Pontalba buildings that face each other across Jackson Square, and the 1850 House is a rowhouse in the lower one. The Louisiana State Museum frames it as mid-19th-century New Orleans life, told through the people who lived there, including enslaved workers and Irish immigrant servants, and a kitchen with a cast-iron range.
Both the state museum and Friends of the Cabildo list 3:30 PM as the last museum ticket, the hour the afternoon walk is sold to end. On a 1:30 PM booking, see the rooms first. The two organizations do list different days: the state museum's page says the house opens daily, while the Friends of the Cabildo page lists Tuesday to Sunday. A Tuesday-to-Sunday date sidesteps the question when the rooms are part of the plan.
Wheelchairs and Children
The listing ticks wheelchair access, and a 2021 visitor who uses a wheelchair wrote that the guide chose an accessible route. The museum is a separate question. The Louisiana State Museum says the 1850 House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, cannot be fully adapted for wheelchairs. It adds that the shop, the courtyard and the ground-floor exhibits are accessible.
Every booking needs an adult, and the listing asks that children come with one.
Two Hours Outdoors, Rain or Shine
The listing says tours go out rain or shine. Visitors have written about guides finding shade in summer and staff handing out disposable ponchos on a wet day. A visitor writing in June 2026 noted there are no breaks during the two hours. Visitors describe one free bottle of water at the shop, and that same visitor wrote that one is not enough in summer heat. Cancel at least 24 hours before the departure for a full refund.
📍 The walk starts and ends at the 1850 House Museum Store, 523 St. Ann Street, in the Lower Pontalba Building on Jackson Square. The listing's own landmark is the statue of Andrew Jackson, whose horse's tail it says points at the shop. The listing also says a restroom is provided for walkers.
On a morning departure, the rooms upstairs fit after the walk. The shop also sells tickets to the Cabildo and the Presbytère, which stand on the same square, and to the New Orleans Jazz Museum.