A New Orleans Garden District Walking Tour That Starts Inside the Opera Guild Home
Unlike the Guild's own Monday-only house tours, this walk goes inside every morning at ten, then covers the oak-lined blocks around it.
The walk starts on the front steps of 2504 Prytania Street and goes through the front door. The first fifteen minutes are inside the Opera Guild Home, an 1859 house the Women's Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association has owned since 1966. The rest of the two hours is the Garden District on foot, about a mile at an easy pace, finishing on Washington Avenue.
The listing has a single departure, 10:00 AM, every day of the week. Entry to the house and the guide come with the ticket; tips and any drinks bought along the way do not.
Garden District Home and History Walking TourDaily 10:00 AM walk from 2504 Prytania St that opens with fifteen minutes inside the Opera Guild Home. Two hours, guide included.www.viator.comThe House Nettie Seebold Left to the Opera
William Freret Jr. designed the house in 1859 for Edward Davis, husband of Freret's aunt, as a Greek Revival side-hall home. A later owner remodeled it in the Italianate style, adding the octagonal turret and enclosing the back porch as a solarium. Herman and Nettie Kinney Seebold bought it in 1944, and when Nettie died in 1965 she willed the house to the Opera Guild. Her one stipulation was that the house not be renovated and the treasures inside not be sold. The Guild's own docent tours run on Mondays from September to May.
A Mile of Live Oaks, Ironwork and Famous Neighbors
From the house, the guide takes the group through the surrounding blocks under live oaks, crepe myrtles and magnolias. The operator names houses tied to Anne Rice, John Goodman and Archie Manning, plus the Benjamin Button house, and frames the neighborhood as American money setting out to outdo the French Quarter. The walk ends somewhere other than where it starts: 1403 Washington Avenue, outside Commander's Palace.
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 Reopened on October 1
The operator's page describes a stop at the gates of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, a look inside and a talk on above-ground burial, and says the cemetery itself is closed to the public. On October 1, 2026, the cemetery reopened after seven years for small guided tours, six sessions a day with sixteen people or fewer each, booked separately. As of October 19, 2026, the operator's page still describes the gate stop, and the booking listing does not mention the cemetery at all. Plan on seeing it through the gates.
Stairs Inside the House, Uneven Sidewalks Outside
The fifteen minutes in the house are the one part a wheelchair cannot do. The listing and the operator both say so, and the Guild's own tour page notes there is no elevator and stairs to climb. The operator calls the rest of the route fully wheelchair accessible, and two travelers who did it in a wheelchair describe a guide helping them over bumpy sidewalks and cobblestones. The listing marks the walk as stroller friendly; the house has the same stairs. It also asks for a moderate level of fitness and recommends comfortable walking shoes. The operator's own photos show a midway break at The Rink, 2727 Prytania St, and reviewers describe it as a stop for restrooms and a drink.
Meet at 10:00 AM on the front steps of 2504 Prytania Street; a mobile ticket works. Booking closes an hour before the start, and one booking covers up to fifteen travelers. Cancel at least 24 hours ahead for a full refund; inside 24 hours there is none. Infants under three go free, and ages three to seven, eight to 17 and 63 and up each pay less than the adult fare. Children need an adult with them. Dress for the weather: reviewers have done this walk in the rain. You finish outside Commander's Palace around noon, across Washington Avenue from the cemetery wall.