The cemetery is not to be missed. In addition to the tomb of Marie Laveau, you will find the civil rights pioneer Homer Plessey (Plessey v. Ferguson) and other graves showing a remarkable history. We wandered a bit during the tour and found another unmarked grave that was similar to Marie's tomb -- with offerings and voodoo marks -- near the back of the cemetery. But the tour? We went with the Historical Walking Tour (tourneworleans/ Cemetery and Voodoo tour) because it came highly recommended in all the guidebooks. Unfortunately, our leader had us look over the shoulders of another group to see Marie's tomb and did not take us to all the advertised spots -- I don't think he liked the Voodoo part of the tour. So that was very disappointing and far less than what we had been promised.

We went on the Historic Walking Tour, and Anna (Ross?) was our guide. We met at the Cafe Beignet, which was very nice. Anna was absolutely fabulous with her true southern charm. She is on a society to preserve the cemetaries, and she is a wealth of information! We loved her! We could have done without the visit with High Priestess Miriam at the Voodoo Museum, although it was definitely an unusual experience. I highly reccommend taking this tour, and if you get lucky enough to have Anna as your tour guide, you will get a bonus!

I thought it was pretty interesting. Went on a walking tour with Historic New Orleans Tours. If you go with them, ditch the tour after going to armstrong park/congo square but before going to the voodoo temple... The tour ran long and the priestess they took us to visit was just weird and rambled. It was like going to visit your semi-coherent grandmother who has a lot to say about nothing.
A lot has been said (here and in books) about safety (i.e. you HAVE to go with a tour). I would say, you can just go at the same time as a tour... You get the safety in numbers benefit without the cost. That said, I also felt like our guide shared some pretty interesting information so I didn't feel like it was wasted money. I just felt that too much was made of the safety issue.

I went to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 on a field trip with my class. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot about the different tomb styles. We got to speak to the people at Cheaux-Vive (a group of women that restore tombs for a living) They have done a lot of work in St.
Louis cemetery No. 1, and have greatly improved the the tombs.
Louisiana has very unique cemeteries, and I think everyone should take a tour of at least one of them.

-Laura (8th grade)