Audubon Park
The Olmsted-designed Uptown park that is the city's living room — more useful than its more famous Quarter cousin.
Uptown
Between St. Charles and Magazine, across from Tulane and Loyola. Frederick Law Olmsted's firm laid out the original 1898 plan and the bones still hold — live oaks dripping Spanish moss, a golf course in the middle, a lagoon full of herons and the occasional alligator.
The 1.8-mile paved loop is what locals come for: joggers, walkers, families, the same retired couple every morning at the same bench. The Audubon Zoo is at the river end if you have kids; otherwise skip it for the park itself. Best in the morning before the heat lifts, or in the late afternoon golden hour when the light through the oaks does the work.
Take the streetcar to the park entrance at Walnut Street and walk in. Driving and parking is the wrong way to experience it.
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