Traveling New Orleans by Bike

Freewheeling Tips for a City of Scandal and Sights

New Orleans: a city known for carnal consumerism and excess. Hardly a destination for environmentally friendly, human fueled transportation-or is it? If you're planning a trip this season, consider being kind to your body and your budget by taking to the streets with a different mode of transport: the bicycle.

Luckily for cyclists, New Orleans' topography is less interesting than its fabled nightlife; flat streets and a relatively concentrated center let you cover plenty of ground with little exertion. French Quarter Bicycles (522 Dumaine St.) offers 24-hour rentals (mainly mountain bikes and hybrids) and a visitor-friendly location for $25, while Joe's Bike Shop (2509 Tulane Ave.), though somewhat off the beaten path, will set you up with a brand new cruiser for only $15.

Depending on your interest and stamina, this sensual city has hours worth of sites and smells well suited to travel on two wheels. While there are few routes with marked bike lanes, main streets are generally wide enough to afford bikers access, and the narrower "rues" of the French Quarter and Garden District are predominately one-way so you can keep an eye on traffic.

Unlike the overrated, generically rowdy Bourbon Street, the rest of New Orleans' French Quarter retains an authentic, subtle charm from the numerous shops, cafés, and leafy balconies which line the streets. Check out the vendors and artists along Jackson Square, park and lock up for a walk through the busy French Market, or just pedal slowly and watch for Mardi Gras beads glittering in the tree branches above. Nearby, where Canal Street meets the Mississippi at one of its deepest points, you can walk your bike onto the free Canal Street Ferry and churn across the river to historic Algiers, a small community with few tourists and lots of tiny, well-preserved "gingerbread" cottages. The ferry runs frequently (every 15-20 minutes), though you may want to extend your stay once you discover some of the little cafés and snowball shops near the ferry landing at Delaronde St.