ninth ward bike tour new orleans

Ninth Ward Rebirth Bike Tours

Review Highlights

“ After a quick stop at Cajun Joe's for a take out po boy, we went to an interesting visit the House of Dance and Feathers. ” in 8 reviews

“ On the day I took the tour, there were six bikers and our guide, Derek , who was extremely knowledgeable and nice. ” in 5 reviews

“ He lost all the exhibits except a few to Katrina and as rebuilt it again. ” in 4 reviews

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New Orleans, LA 70117

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Hurrican KAtrina through the Ninth Ward of New Orleans into the spotlight, but it had been an important cultural corner of New Orleans long before that. A tightknit neighborhood filled with musicians, second line parades and Mrdi Gras Indian tribes. Our tours show you not just what happened and why during the hurricane, but why the Ninth Ward was so important to begin with and what people are doing to bring it back. We weill take you to meet people who lived there long before and chose to stay and put their neighborhood back together again. The 4 hour tour is intended to put money back into the community. Their is a stop at theincredible House of Dance and Feathers and a lunch stop also. Plus We donate 10% the $55 tour directly to Ninth Ward charities. Join us for a ride you won't soon forget. …

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The BEST bike tour in NOLA! Thank you Kathy for making our day with a great bike ride, showing the resilience of community and sharing important information.

Derek....AMAZING! Authenticity....Yes! Thank Ninth Ward for exposing us to the true culture and history of New Orleans through a raw lense. We didn't want a sterile bus tour with folks seeking landmarks I could find on my own. We wanted to meet the people, learn the true nature of the community and connect. Derek provided the full experience. The tour brought you into the heart of New Orleans and closer to the core. The bike paths were a little rough and you may break a couple of road laws but that's all part of the cultural immersion. We met beautiful locals and heard stories that gave you an insider perspective into the life of a cajun. If you can handle cruising on a bike for a few hours and want to know more about a city filled with so much history then call Ninth immediately. Thank you again Derek and crew! We will be back in 4 years to see the transformation with you. ;)

The owners of this company are actively involved in the community, and encourage their riders to explore more of the city, both in geography and in history & culture. The bike tour is interesting, engaging even to my 12 year old son who was the only child in the group. He was reluctant at first, but by the end he just wanted to see more.

My sister found this tour on Yelp for us, we took it yesterday with Leeann and it was just great. We were with just one other couple who were great, and the five of us biked all over together on our big comfy cruisers. We did 12 miles in 5 hours, through the beautiful Mardi Gras covered streets near the French Quarter down through Bywater, along the levees, and into the heart of the lower ninth ward. The ride is amazing and made a zillion times better by our guide who grew up in the Lower Ninth and still lives there. She was able to include personal details in the tour like where her grandparents met. Incredibly personal, humanizing and emotional. Tour ends at their shop with tons of adorable local products, it's cash only for now heads up!

Strong tour. Bikes are easy to ride cruisers, and they help newbies learn how to use them before going out on the streets. Terrific history and information covering hurricanes, water management, ninth ward, socio-economic issues, mardi gras, and more. The House of Dance and Feathers is very interesting, be ready to ask questions and start your own conversation lines as Ronald seems most comfortable engaging this way. If you don't, you really will not learn much there. It would be really helpful to read some history of Mardi Gras indian tribes and the celebration to prepare for more enlightening conversation. The Po Boy place is nowhere near the best po boy. It is an average po boy, great if you are hungry because they are huge. I had several this week inside and out of New Orleans and it was forgettable. Very nice people at the counter. If a big draw for you is to get a great po boy, don't get your hopes up!

LOVED this tour. We went in May 2014 and I'm just getting around to yelping it. Our tour guide was Derek and he was great - very personable and knowledgeable. The pace was great for casual riders, too. We learned so much and got to see areas of New Orleans we wouldn't have seen if we stayed in the touristy areas (although I'm sure the folks of the LNW probably feel it's become very touristy with us riding around). Everyone we ran into was friendly and chatted with us. One gentleman gave us some of the blueberries from a bush in his yard. The place we stopped for lunch made delicious po' boys. I think the only part that was slightly annoying was that the lunch place was small and only had a few people working there so with about 7-9 people in our group plus their regular customers, waiting for the food was incredibly agonizing considering how good everything looked and smelled. Perhaps if the order can be called in ahead of time and the group can be there to pick it up, that might be a better option. The shops where the bike ride starts and ends are cute and have some really cool pieces of art. If you are someone that knows there must be more to New Orleans than barfing in the street every night, you should do this bike tour.

This was one of the highlights of our NOLA visit. I found this while browsing through tours on TripAdvisor, looking or something off the beaten path and this looked like we'd be in neighborhoods and on the ground. Setting up the trip by email was easy and they answered all my questions - from vegetarian lunch options to was this suitable for a relatively inexperienced bicyclist. Derek, our tour guide, was easy going, knowledgeable, and said he never did the same tour twice. We were touring on St. Joseph's day so he threw in a visit to 2 altars, asking us ahead of time if we were ok with that. You start off on a cruiser bicycle with a basket, a bottle of water and helmet. We stopped to get lunch to go from Cajun Jo's, a plain neighborhood place run by a Vietnamese family. Simple food at cheap prices. We then rode a few block to eat lunch in Mr. Lewis's backyard. Visiting Mr. Lewis was a special experience, and hearing from him about his Dance and Feathers museum. He lost all the exhibits except a few to Katrina and as rebuilt it again. He's the community glue who lives for what he does. And for his grandchildren :) The tour is about 4.5 hours long but don't let this scare you. The bike seats are very comfortable, the pace is relaxed with a lot of breaks, drivers are patient letting bicyclists through, and the city is very flat. And Derek and our group of 9 were accommodating of me who fell behind a few times. Payment is in cash only. Like a TripAdvisor reviewer wrote: if you're breathing, you must go on this trip.

This was a really awesome experience and was a great way to cap off our New Orleans adventure. We did the tour on a freezing cold saturday morning at 930. We expected it to warm up but it never did, it only got colder, which was the only bad part of the tour. Our tour guide Derrick was incredibly knowledgable and friendly, informing all of us from a New Orleanian's perspective about the issues the Ninth Ward has faced, the issues it's still facing as well as it's hopes for the future. It was a really positive tour, focusing more on the brighter and unique features of the city rather than a whole bunch of depressing information about Hurricane Katrina. We stopped off at Cajun Joes for a po-boy about half way through the tour, which was really big and reasonably priced. The other major stop was Ronald Lewis' House of Dance and Feathers, a museum dedicated to the culture of New Orleans societies and clubs, with emphasis on the Louisiana Indians. The museum had a large array of photographs and incredibly complex and colourful costumes worn by Ronald in various parades over the years. He also has a book for sale that he wrote, that delves deeper into the many complexities and variations in this particular culture unique to New Orleans. Derrick even took us to his local bar afterward for a quick beer, which we found you were allowed to cycle and drink at the same time! Overall an awesome tour, highly recommended and definitely worth the money.

Prior to my trip, I was researching biking opportunities in New Orleans. Being that this was my second trip, I wanted to get out to neighborhoods previously unseen to me (one being the 9th ward). A few days prior to my arrival, I booked this trip for two and was good to go three days later for a 9:30 a.m. ride. We were greeted by a friendly and passionate resident tour guide who briefed us on bike safety and the idiosyncrasies of riding in the Crescent City. Almost from the get go, it was obvious that during his time living here, he really poured his heart and soul into absorbing as many historical details about his adopted city. His knowledge and charisma kept us engaged throughout the trip. As sobering as this ride was, I did leave with a sense of hope as we actually saw the results of the tremendous rebuilding efforts. I fell in love with New Orleans during my first trip, but this time around I left with a more thorough understanding of the pride the residents have for their city. I would recommend this experience to anyone.

Best way to set up this fascinating tour of the Ninth Ward is to send an e-mail in advance. The phone number listed in Yelp appears to be one of their tour guide's cell phone and is not the way to schedule a tour. They do book up, so get your tour reserved in advance. We met at Washington Square just off of Frenchman Street. Our tour guide was great. He is getting his Ph.D in American History at Tulane so I would consider him authoritative. We rode all morning and stopped off at a cemetery which isn't really the Lower Ninth, but interesting nonetheless. It really got interesting when we crossed the canal and into the Lover Ninth. Stopped at an old Catholic school that remains trashed by Katrina. There are still lots of homes that remain trashed, and many more empty lots that have been bulldozed and now overgrown by vegetation and probably vermin and snakes. Some of the homes have been rebuilt into structures that were similar to what might have been in the neighborhood before, but in worst sections much of the rebuilding has been super-modern designs that I presume reflect an architect's vision of an affordable, energy saving, usable home design. I don't mind the very unusual designs of the new homes, but I think it would have been better if they could have grouped the general design scheme for each architect into separate neighborhoods or blocks, instead of just throwing them all together to create a hodge-podge patchwork look. After a quick stop at Cajun Joe's for a take out po boy, we went to an interesting visit the House of Dance and Feathers. Our ride concluded back at the Confederacy of Cruisers/Confederacy of Tours shop around the corner from the Washington Square meeting point. Really a great tour. You get to stand on a Mississippi River levee and imagine 10+ feet of standing water in the neighborhood below you.

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• 9th Ward Tours

Ninth Ward Rebirth Bike Tours

These bicycle tours of the Lower Ninth Ward are like nothing else ever offered in this city… close up and hands on with the people who were affected, the people who are rebuilding, and the people who are carrying on the rich cultural traditions of that historic neighborhood.

Her tours will leave you uplifted at the spirit of the neighborhood and understanding of the people who are choosing to return to their lives after having it all buried under 10 feet of water. A stop at the House of Dance and Feathers to learn about the Mardi Gras Indians and the local parading traditions, and a stop at the Village to learn about the hopeful future of the area will be included in your ride to give you a well rounded view.

These tours will cover more ground, a different area than our own Confederacy of Cruiser tours and are for cyclists who are at least in average shape as their is a bridge to traverse to get there.

Check out their website at ninthwardrebirthbiketours.com for more on her unique tours.

We are working on all kinds of ideas to make your trips down here something special.  Multi-day bike Louisiana bicycle tours riding along the levees of the Mississippi River with stops at historic plantations and stays at our better Bed and Breakfasts will be coming in the future.  These tours will have well chosen food stops, because in Louisiana, no day of exercise is complete without local cuisine for counter balance. Of course, Confederacy of Cruisers knows our roots (as well as our routes) so no fancy road bikes here, only fancy multi-speed, skinny wheeled, cruiser style bikes such as the beautiful 3 speed Bianchi commuter bikes;  sitting up, relaxing, and being comfortable is the only way to ride in the utterly flat Louisiana countryside and that is the way we will do it.  Drop bars are just never going to be needed here.

These tours will be for all skill levels of riders. Trip lengths and miles per day will all be flexible so the most fit to the haven’t been riding in years will all be happy.  Send us a note if this interests you so we can work to make it happen.

• Welcome to A Street Tour Named Desire/Confederacy of Cruisers…New Orleans oldest bike tour company has a new beginning!
• Contact and Reservations
• Our Creole New Orleans Bike Tour
• Cocktails in New Orleans Bike Tour
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Can you cross the street?

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9th Ward Bicycle Tour in New Orleans

During a recent trip to New Orleans, Frank and I decided to go see the famous Lower 9th Ward – the neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We signed up for a bike tour with  Confederacy of Cruises and had a very interesting, educational and fun day.

Our tour guide Derek is a native New Orleanian. When he was growing up, the Lower 9th Ward was one of those places you didn’t stop at, not even for gas. (Not that there were many gas stations nor grocery stores to mention.)

We got our bikes, got the very short safety spiel, decided to leave our helmets behind – it was hot – and set off. After a nice stroll through Marigny and Bywater, we crossed a bridge – probably the only “scary” part as far as biking went and entered the Lower 9th Ward.

Along the way we learned things like how emergency workers performed search and rescue after the flood and what the X meant on houses . They show that the house was searched, the date and what was found, including the number of alive and dead victims. Many home owners have preserved the mark.

After a stop for some awesome po’boys at Arabi’s, we headed to the river.. While we were there this man walking on top of the levee wall with a weight, stopped to talk to us. In a very musical voice, he started talking about crazy things like spy boys and Indians. I was wondering what was going on when I saw Derek discreetly motion to us that he would explain later.

Derek had a conversation with him and once he left he explained that the man was part of the local Mardi Gras Indian krewe.

Most of us think of Mardi Gras parades as floats and beads and masks. But in the New Orleans neighborhoods, especially among black communities, Mardi Gras is about Mardi Gras Indians. They form krewes, led by a Big Chief, who decide the parade route on the day of Mardi Gras. The costumes and dancing are amazing. Later on the tour we stopped at Ronald Lewis’ house and museum the House of Dance and Feathers to learn a lot more.

After our our chat with the spy boy, Derek looked over and said, that’s a new brewery that’s opening, let’s go check it out! Turns out they had not even opened yet, but in between loading the truck for their opening party, they did give us a private tasting …

After that we went to visit the area most devastated by the floods. The flood waters rose so quickly – something like 20 feet in 20 minutes – that many people ended up trapped in their attic as they climbed for safety and then couldn’t get high enough nor could they get out. It’s now recommended to keep an ax in your attic.

The neighborhood had a lot of empty lots and a lot of decrepit buildings. If you lived in the neighborhood before the flood, there is a program where you can buy a very cheap lot to build on.

Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has also built a number of homes in the area to promote growth. They are supposed to be environmentally friendly and more flood proof. There was a lot of mixed feelings about them. But they did all seem to be occupied and that part of the neighborhood seemed to be prospering more than the rest.

After that we started our ride home. At this point we started losing one guy a lot, supposedly to take pictures. Frank had heard that couple arguing earlier about whose great idea it was to take such a long bike ride.

We thought the ride was a good mix of biking and breaks. We don’t bike much but we didn’t have much trouble with it, although Frank did say his butt was sore!

I highly recommend a tour of the 9th Ward with Derek from Confederacy of Cruisers .

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2 thoughts on “ 9th ward bicycle tour in new orleans ”.

Pingback: Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans | Can you cross the street?

Great article. We are planning a trip to NOLA and are thinking of booking a bike tour. After reading your experience, makes me want to do it even more.

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• New Orleans

Ninth Ward Rebirth Bike Tours

New Orleans , Louisiana 70117 USA

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Learn more about this business on Yelp .

Reviewed by Greg L.

Derek....AMAZING! Authenticity....Yes! Thank Ninth Ward for exposing us to the true culture and history of New Orleans through a raw lense. We didn't want a sterile bus tour with folks seeking... Read more

Reviewed by Sally O.

The BEST bike tour in NOLA! Thank you Kathy for making our day with a great bike ride, showing the resilience of community and sharing important information. Read more

Reviewed by Hillary C.

The owners of this company are actively involved in the community, and encourage their riders to explore more of the city, both in geography and in history & culture. The bike tour is... Read more

View 18 reviews on

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