What is the New Orleans outdoor escape game?
The New Orleans outdoor escape game is an escape room taken into the open air: you carry the puzzles on your smartphone and solve them at 10 stops around the city, using only what you can observe on site. Expect about 2 hours in total, including 55 minutes of walking over 3.8 km, and pick any day that suits you.
Each puzzle belongs to one landmark, from Jackson Square and Saint Louis Cathedral to the French Market and Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, where a local legend links the building to the Lafitte brothers. None of the puzzles depends on another, and up to three levels of hints are available when you are stuck. The French Quarter suits this format because its squares and façades sit close together.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 55 min · 3.8 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish
What happens at each stop
Observe
Study the façade, the statue or the square in front of you, because the clue lies in what can be seen right there.
Reason
Link your observations logically until they point to a solution. You need no prior knowledge of the city.
Walk
Google Maps guides you from stop to stop over about 3.8 km, roughly 55 minutes on foot.
Breathe
No clock runs in the background. Ask for a hint when you are stuck, take a coffee break, and carry on later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who the escape game suits
Friends
Each puzzle gives the group something new to argue over at the next corner, and nobody has to know New Orleans beforehand.
Couples
Solving puzzles side by side keeps the conversation going as you walk from the riverfront to Louis Armstrong Park, with no clock to beat.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes it a practical choice for colleagues looking for a shared challenge outdoors.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route from Spanish Plaza to Congo Square
10 stops · about 55 min walking · start: Spanish Plaza · finish: Congo Square
The game opens at Spanish Plaza on the Mississippi riverfront and closes at Congo Square inside Louis Armstrong Park. In between lie eight stops: Caesars New Orleans Hotel & Casino, the Audubon Aquarium, Woldenberg Park, Jackson Square, Saint Louis Cathedral, the French Market, Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Louis Armstrong Park. Starting in daylight is wise, because the puzzles are played outside, where rain or strong wind will hold you up. The app lets you change the order of the stops, Google Maps guides you between them, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Spanish PlazaStart
Spanish Plaza on the Mississippi riverfront was dedicated by Spain to the city in 1976 as a pledge of friendship between the two places. Its central fountain is surrounded by the seals of Spain's provinces.
2Caesars New Orleans Hotel & Casino
This casino hotel near the foot of Canal Street opened as Harrah's in October 1999 on the site of the former Rivergate Convention Center. It was renamed Caesars New Orleans in 2024, and it is the only land-based casino in Louisiana.
3Audubon Aquarium
The Audubon Aquarium opened on the riverbank in 1990 and reopened in 2023 after a renovation, and it is home to about 10,000 animals from the Americas. Its exhibits include the Amazon Rainforest, the Caribbean Reef, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River.
4Woldenberg Park
Woldenberg Park opened in October 1989 along the Mississippi and is named after the philanthropist Malcolm Woldenberg, who helped fund it. Its Holocaust memorial by Yaacov Agam shows different images from different angles, and the Monument to the Immigrant by Franco Alessandrini was installed in 1995.
5Jackson Square
Jackson Square, the central square of the French Quarter, was named in 1851 after General Andrew Jackson, the victor of the Battle of New Orleans. Its statue of Jackson by Clark Mills was erected in 1856, and Saint Louis Cathedral stands on its north side.
6Saint Louis Cathedral
The third church on this site was begun in 1789 and completed in 1794, but most of the present building dates from a rebuild in 1850. The cathedral is counted among the oldest cathedrals in continuous use in the United States, and Pope John Paul II visited it in 1987.
7French Market Place
The French Market, which dates back to 1791 and is described as the oldest of its kind in the United States, stretches for six blocks through the French Quarter. It began where Café du Monde stands today, and the historic open-sided merchant stalls now hold enclosed shops and restaurants.
8Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, built between 1722 and 1732 in the briquette-entre-poteaux style of French Louisiana, is reputed to be the oldest bar in the United States. A local legend links it to the Lafitte brothers, and the story mixes truth with embellishment.
9Louis Armstrong Park
Louis Armstrong Park was created by the city after a decade of debate and honours the trumpeter born in New Orleans. It contains a 12-foot statue of Armstrong by Elizabeth Catlett and the Mahalia Jackson Theater.
10Congo SquareFinish
Congo Square lies inside Louis Armstrong Park, and on Sundays in the 18th and 19th centuries enslaved Africans gathered there to trade, sing, dance and play drums. The music that grew out of these gatherings blended African and European styles.
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