Dog Friendly City Guide: New Orleans, USA

New Orleans moves at a dog's pace. It is a city of long, slow walks under live oaks, of courtyards and porches, of neighbourhood bars where the regulars know each other's dogs by name. The great green spaces, City Park in the north and Audubon Park uptown, are shaded by trees that were old before the streetcars came, and the newer life of the city, the small breweries of the Irish Channel and the Bywater, has grown up with a water bowl by the door. Come in the cooler months, from late autumn to spring, and you can walk from breakfast to dinner with a dog at your heel.

Getting There With a Dog

Arriving from abroad, your dog has to satisfy the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the rules depend on where it has been for the past six months. A dog coming only from dog rabies-free or low-risk countries must look healthy on arrival, be at least six months old, carry a microchip a universal scanner can read, and travel with a receipt for a CDC Dog Import Form, one per dog. A dog that has been in any high-risk country for dog rabies in that time faces much stricter requirements, so read the CDC's dog importation pages well before you book.

Most visitors fly into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, west of the city. Its accessibility page lists a pet relief area after security, near Shake Shack, and an outdoor service animal and pet relief area on Level 1, which is useful after a long flight. Many people drive in instead, and a car makes the trip out to Chalmette Battlefield simple.

Where to Stay

Three hotels in the city are on our ranked dog friendly hotels in New Orleans, and each holds a D, so none of them is built around dogs. They do have one great asset in common: location, in or beside the French Quarter, which puts the river and the old squares on your doorstep.

Bourbon Orleans Hotel is the one that lets a dog share the most of the house. Yours is welcome in the restaurant, the lounge, the terrace and the garden, so it can stay at your side through the evening, and there is no weight limit, so a big dog is treated exactly like a small one. Most rooms take dogs, one to a room, and the fee is a single charge of $100 for the stay.

InterContinental New Orleans suits the owner travelling with two dogs, or a large one. It takes up to two dogs a room with no weight limit, welcomes them on the terrace, keeps an emergency vet number at the desk, and allows a settled dog to be left in the room. The fee is $150 per dog for the stay, with no deposit, and cats are welcome too.

Omni Royal Orleans Hotel in the heart of the Quarter is for the owner of a smaller dog. It takes up to two dogs of up to 25 pounds in a room, welcomes them in the lounge, and lets you leave a settled dog in the room while you go out. The fee is $150, with no deposit.

Eat and Drink

The best of dog friendly New Orleans is found in its taprooms. Uptown in the Irish Channel, Miel Brewery and Taproom on Sixth Street answers the question on its own page: it loves dogs, asks only that you keep them close and leashed, and has dog bowls and treats ready. Food comes from daily pop-ups, and outside those hours you may bring your own.

A short way upriver on Tchoupitoulas Street, Port Orleans Brewing Co. lists itself as both kid friendly and dog friendly. It brews its own beer and keeps a kitchen open from late morning into the evening, with taco specials on Tuesdays and discounted wings on Wednesdays, so this is the easy place for a long lunch with the dog under the table.

Downriver, in the Bywater, Parleaux Beer Lab is a neighbourhood brewery with a beer garden and taproom, open every day. It says plainly that it is family friendly and pet friendly, and asks that pets stay on a leash. It even sells its own dog collar. A few blocks back towards the Quarter, on Franklin Avenue in the Marigny, Pepp's Pub introduces itself as a neighbourhood bar, dog friendly, with craft beer, cocktails and nice people, and its own motto puts the dogs first and the people second.

For dinner on the hotel side of town, remember that Bourbon Orleans welcomes dogs in its restaurant, which is rare in the Quarter and makes an easy last stop on a long day.

Walks and Parks

City Park is the city's great green space, 1,300 acres of oaks, lagoons and gardens north of Mid-City. The park's rules welcome dogs on a leash in its open areas, with owners asked to pick up after them, and inside it lies the best dog park in town. NOLA City Bark is a 4.6 acre, keycard-access park where dogs can run off the leash. Entry needs a permit, and visitors can buy a two-week temporary permit for $25. Dogs must be at least six months old, spayed or neutered, heartworm negative and current on rabies, DHLPP and Bordetella vaccinations, with proof of vaccination. It opens from 5.30am to 9pm Wednesday to Monday and from 3pm to 9pm on Tuesdays.

Uptown, Audubon Park, on Magazine Street in historic uptown New Orleans, is the other classic walk, with groves of ancient live oaks, a picturesque lagoon and a 1.8-mile jogging path that makes a perfect loop with a dog. Its park rules ask that animals are securely leashed at all times, in line with the city ordinance.

Also uptown, the city's recreation department runs Wisner Playground and Dog Run on Laurel Street, a fenced dog run alongside the playground and fields, handy for a run before or after the long loop under the oaks.

Downriver from the city, Chalmette Battlefield is the site of the Battle of New Orleans, fought on 8 January 1815. It has a reconstructed American rampart, an 1830s house and the 100-foot Chalmette Monument, and the National Park Service allows leashed pets on the grounds, though not in the buildings or in Chalmette National Cemetery.

A Day Out

Start early in Audubon Park, walking the oak-shaded loop round the lagoon before the heat builds, then let the dog run at Wisner. Drift down towards the river for lunch at Port Orleans on Tchoupitoulas, and in the afternoon take the short hop to Miel in the Irish Channel, where there is a bowl waiting.

On a second day, drive out to Chalmette Battlefield in the morning and walk the field along the rampart with a dog on the leash. Come back by way of the Bywater for a beer in the garden at Parleaux, and end the evening on Franklin Avenue at Pepp's, where the dog is as much a regular as you are.

Good to Know

A few rules make the visit easier. Bourbon Orleans does not allow a dog to be left alone in the room, so plan your evenings around its restaurant and lounge; InterContinental and Omni Royal Orleans allow a settled dog to be left. At InterContinental dogs are welcome on the terrace and at Omni Royal Orleans in the lounge. City Park asks that dogs stay on a leash outside City Bark and keeps them to the open areas, Audubon Park asks for a leash everywhere, and City Bark needs its permit before your first visit. At the Jean Lafitte park sites, the Park Service asks that pets are never left unattended in a vehicle. Summers here are long, hot and humid, so walk early and late, and keep the middle of the day for the air conditioning.