New Orleans
The easiest trip on this list to reach and the least like anywhere else in America. Four hours from Boston, and a different country when you land.
A French and Spanish city that ended up in Louisiana
New Orleans was French, then Spanish, then French again for twenty days, and only American from 1803. That history is not decorative — it is why the street grid, the food, the law and the architecture all diverge from the rest of the country. The French Quarter's wrought-iron galleries are largely Spanish colonial, rebuilt after the fires of 1788 and 1794. Above Canal Street, the Garden District is the American quarter the newcomers built when the Creole city would not have them.
The cultural inheritance is largely West African, filtered through the Caribbean. Congo Square in Tremé was the one place in the antebellum South where enslaved people were permitted to gather and drum on Sundays, and the direct line from that to jazz is not a tourist-board invention. Second-line parades, brass bands and the Mardi Gras Indians all still function as neighbourhood institutions rather than performances.
On timing: February through May is the season — cool enough to walk, and the calendar is stacked with Mardi Gras, French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest. October and November are the other good window. July and August are hot and humid in a way that has to be experienced to be believed, and hurricane season runs June through November. Hotel rates during Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest triple and require booking a year out.
New Orleans, four ways
What we'd actually send you to do
Not an exhaustive list — the handful of things our travelers come home talking about.
Things to do
- Hear live music on Frenchmen StreetThree blocks of clubs a short walk from the Quarter, where the city actually goes. Bourbon Street is for people watching; Frenchmen is for listening.
- Ride the St. Charles streetcarThe oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, running the length of the Garden District under live oaks.
- Take a cemetery tourThe above-ground tombs of Lafayette No. 1 and St. Louis No. 1. St. Louis No. 1 now requires a licensed guide.
- Get out to a swampAn hour from the city, on a flat-bottomed boat, among cypress knees and alligators.
- Catch a second line on a SundayNeighbourhood parades with a brass band, announced weekly. Everyone is welcome to fall in behind.
Places to go
- The French QuarterEight by six blocks. Stay here or in the Marigny if it is your first visit.
- The Garden DistrictAntebellum mansions, Magazine Street shopping, and Commander's Palace at the corner.
- TreméOne of the oldest Black neighbourhoods in the United States, and the birthplace of much of the music.
- The National WWII MuseumConsistently ranked among the best museums in the country. Budget a half day, not an hour.
- Upriver plantationsWhitney in particular, which tells the story from the perspective of the enslaved rather than the house.
Things to see
- Jackson Square and St. Louis CathedralThe oldest continuously active cathedral in the United States, with the square and the river walk behind it.
- Preservation HallAcoustic traditional jazz, no amplification, no bar, forty-five minutes. Buy the timed tickets online.
- The Mississippi from Algiers PointTake the ferry across for the skyline view back, for about the price of a coffee.
- Mardi Gras WorldThe warehouse where the parade floats are built year-round.
- City Park and the sculpture gardenBigger than Central Park, with oaks that predate the city.
On the table in New Orleans
Dishes to order
- GumboDark roux, okra or filé, seafood or chicken and andouille. Every kitchen argues its own version.
- Beignets and chicory coffeeCafé du Monde, open around the clock. Wear something you do not mind covering in powdered sugar.
- Po' boysOn dressed French bread. Fried shrimp, oyster, or roast beef with gravy.
- Crawfish, in seasonBoiled by the pound with corn and potatoes, roughly January through June. Messy and communal.
Where locals eat
- Commander's PalaceTurquoise, a century old, and still the benchmark. The weekday jazz brunch is the way in.
- Corner joints in the BywaterWhere the good cheap food has moved. Ask your hotel what opened this year.
- Old-line Creole roomsGalatoire's, Arnaud's, Antoine's — jackets, waiters who have been there thirty years, and a Friday lunch that runs all afternoon.
What to drink
- SazeracRye, Peychaud's bitters and an absinthe rinse. Invented here and the official cocktail of the city.
- Ramos gin fizzShaken for a full twelve minutes. Order it somewhere that will actually do that.
- Abita, from across the lakeThe local brewery, on tap nearly everywhere.
Let's put dates on New Orleans
Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest hotel blocks are held a year ahead — for those weeks especially, book early. Tell us roughly when you'd like to travel and we'll come back with real options and current pricing.
