The Long Weekend
Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Stand Uptown on St. Charles, Not on Bourbon Street
Fly in Friday, Feb 5, base yourself near St. Charles Avenue, and let Fat Tuesday come to you. The Mardi Gras plan, in order.
By The Long Weekend, SoGoJet Fare Desk ·
Written with AI from SoGoJet's fare data, and reviewed by SoGoJet before publishing. Every fare is dated and comes from our own fare checks.
Take the Friday to Wednesday window
Fly in Friday, Feb 5, and stay Uptown, not in the French Quarter. The St. Charles Avenue parades are why you came, and Uptown is where you can watch them without fighting for a patch of curb. Fat Tuesday falls on Tuesday, February 9, 2027, and the parades run in the days before it. The trip we searched, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, covers the parade weekend, the day itself and a quiet morning after.
Fly home Wednesday, not Tuesday night. Tuesday night is when everyone tries to leave at once, and the party has not finished with them yet. The city does not care that you have a meeting Thursday.
Pick the nonstop
Houston is the shortest flight. The fare we checked is nonstop, with an outbound flight time of 1 hr 19 min: a New Orleans fare at $377 round trip for Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9. You will spend longer than that waiting for a float.
Chicago is also nonstop, outbound 2 hr 34 min, with a New Orleans fare at $506 round trip for Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9.
The tradeoff shows up from Dulles. The New Orleans fare we checked from IAD, $457 round trip for Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, had at least one stop and an outbound flight time of 8 hr 5 min. On a parade weekend, nonstop matters more than usual: a missed connection on Friday costs you a parade night, not just an evening. Tampa and Phoenix also had at least one stop in what we checked.
Getting in from MSY and where to base
You land at MSY, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, in Kenner, west of the city. Taxis and rideshares meet arrivals. Land early in the day Friday. Once the parade routes close, every ride takes the long way around.
Base yourself Uptown or in the Garden District, near St. Charles Avenue. You walk to the route, you walk home, and you never need a car to cross a barricade. The French Quarter is closer to the postcards and farther from sleep.
The parade weekend
Stand on St. Charles Avenue, Uptown. Families set up ladders along the route, some with seats on top for children. Stand beside a ladder, never in front of it. Riders throw beads from the floats. Keep your hands up and your eyes open.
Eat king cake. Whoever finds the plastic baby inside buys the next one.
Skip Bourbon Street at night. It is the most crowded stretch of Carnival, and the big floats do not roll through the Quarter. Canal Street downtown is where many parades end up, and the crowd there gets deep. Uptown gets many of the same floats and still leaves you a place to stand.
Between parades, walk Magazine Street through Uptown and the Garden District, or spend an afternoon in City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art. For an evening without floats, go to Frenchmen Street in the Marigny for live music. You will come home with more beads than you can explain.
Fat Tuesday
Tuesday, February 9 belongs to Zulu and Rex, the parades that roll on the day itself. Pick your spot early and stay put. Wandering on Fat Tuesday is how you end up watching the parade from behind a stranger's ladder.
Wear a costume. On Fat Tuesday, street clothes are what stand out.
The French Quarter is shoulder to shoulder all day. Uptown has room to sit. Choose sitting, and wear shoes you can stand in until dark.
Ash Wednesday, then home
Wednesday, Feb 10 is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, and the city goes quiet. Go to Jackson Square in the French Quarter in the morning, while the cleanup crews finish. This is the day to see it without the crowd.
Give yourself extra room for the ride out to MSY, because everyone else is leaving today too. Leave the ladder for next year's family and pack the beads in your checked bag.
The fare board
Real fares we checked for this story, round trip, economy, one adult. Fares change; each shows the day we checked it.
- Houston (IAH) to New OrleansFri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10 · Nonstop, 1 hr 19 min outchecked Nov 9Houston (IAH) to New Orleans: $377 round trip, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9
- Dulles (IAD) to New OrleansFri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10 · Connecting, 8 hr 5 min outchecked Nov 9Dulles (IAD) to New Orleans: $457 round trip, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9
- Tampa (TPA) to New OrleansFri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10 · Connecting, 6 hr 25 min outchecked Nov 9Tampa (TPA) to New Orleans: $580 round trip, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9
- Chicago (ORD) to New OrleansFri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10 · Nonstop, 2 hr 34 min outchecked Nov 9Chicago (ORD) to New Orleans: $506 round trip, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9
- Phoenix (PHX) to New OrleansFri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10 · Connecting, 4 hr 55 min outchecked Nov 9Phoenix (PHX) to New Orleans: $597 round trip, Fri, Feb 5 to Wed, Feb 10, checked Nov 9
About these fares
Every fare here is one fare SoGoJet checked, for the travel dates shown, with the day we checked it: either a live search for those exact dates or a fare from our fare cache. Unless a row says otherwise, it is the airline fare with taxes, sold through a partner, before any SoGoJet fee. Nonstop and flight time describe the offer we found. Fares change; "Check from your airport" shows the latest fare we have. All days are UTC. Data as of Nov 9, 2026.