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Way down yonder in New Orleans, you'll find the roots of jazz and a blossoming culture that is unlike anything else on Earth. Here, the laid-back atmosphere of the riverfront South has mixed with French sophistication, Spanish style, and African-American energy to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Though hit hard by Katrina, "Nawlins" remains the largest city in Louisiana and one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.
"Laissez les bons temps rouler" is what they say here in the Big Easy, and you too can "let the good times roll" with a cool stroll down Bourbon Street, a hot Dixieland band, and even hotter Creole cuisine. Mardi Gras may be the city's calling card, but that's just one day out of the hot and muggy year in New Orleans.
Go ahead, take a riverboat down the Mississippi, munch on some beignets, and watch the Saints go marchin' in. But when it's time... Read more
Way down yonder in New Orleans, you'll find the roots of jazz and a blossoming culture that is unlike anything else on Earth. Here, the laid-back atmosphere of the riverfront South has mixed with French sophistication, Spanish style, and African-American energy to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Though hit hard by Katrina, "Nawlins" remains the largest city in Louisiana and one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.
"Laissez les bons temps rouler" is what they say here in the Big Easy, and you too can "let the good times roll" with a cool stroll down Bourbon Street, a hot Dixieland band, and even hotter Creole cuisine. Mardi Gras may be the city's calling card, but that's just one day out of the hot and muggy year in New Orleans.
Go ahead, take a riverboat down the Mississippi, munch on some beignets, and watch the Saints go marchin' in. But when it's time to leave, you, too, will know what it means to miss New Orleans.
New Orleans is known for a host of attributes like its famous Creole food, abundant alcohol, music of many styles, nearby swamps and plantations, 18th & 19th-century architecture, antiques, gay pride, streetcars, museums. Nicknamed the Big Easy, New Orleans has long had a reputation as an adult-oriented city. However, the city also offers many attractions for families with children and those interested in culture and the arts. It is a city with a majority Roman Catholic population owing to its European origins.
Famous festivals like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest bring in tourists by the millions and are the two times of the year when one needs to be sure to book well in advance to be sure of a room. The city also hosts numerous smaller festivals and gatherings like the French Quarter Festival, Creole Tomato Festival, Satchmo SummerFest, the Essence Festival hosted by the magazine, Halloween parading and costume balls, Saint Patrick's Day and Saint Joseph's Day parading, Southern Decadence, and so many more. The city takes almost any occasion for an excuse for a parade, a party, and live music, and in New Orleans most events often have a touch of Mardi Gras year round. As they say, New Orleanians are either planning a party, enjoying one or recovering from one. Party down!
It is a city of great culture with a clash of French, Cajun and some Spanish designs. You may see some voodoo activity at night. The trolley rides are fun and many of the stores carry exclusive cultural art such as the blue dog collection.
In the late 1600s, French trappers and traders began settling in what is now New Orleans, along a Native American trade route between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain via Bayou St. John. In 1718 the city was officially founded as "Nouvelle-Orléans" by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, Governor of the French colony of Louisiana, with the intent to build it into a provincial capital city. The early French city grew within the grid of what is now the French Quarter. Louisiana was transferred to Spanish rule in the 1760s, but much of the population retained French language and culture. After briefly returning to French rule, Louisiana was purchased by the United States in 1803. At first, the new "American" settlers mostly built their homes and shops upriver from the older French parts of the city, across wide "Canal Street" (named for a planned canal that was never built). Canal Street was the dividing line between the Anglophone and Francophone sections; the street's wide median became a popular meeting place called "the neutral ground"—and "neutral ground" became the common phrase for the median of any street, still in use in the New Orleans dialect today.
A British attempt to seize the city in 1815 was repelled downriver from the city in Chalmette by local forces led by Andrew Jackson, whose equestrian statue can be seen in the square named after him in the center of the Old Quarter.
Early New Orleans was already a rich melting pot of peoples and cultures. French Spanish African and Anglos were joined by immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and the Caribbean. While a center of the slave trade before the American Civil War, New Orleans also had the USA's largest population of free people of color. The city grew rapidly as a major trade center on the mighty Mississippi River. In the American Civil War of the 1860s, New Orleans fell to the Union early in the conflict without battle within the city, sparing the city's rich historic architecture from the destruction suffered by much of the American South.
At the start of the 20th century, the then largely neglected old French Quarter started gaining new appreciation among artists and bohemians for its architecture and ambiance. Around the same time, a new musical style developed in the city; the music developed and swept around the world under the name of "jazz."
Although far from the big battlefronts, New Orleans is proud of its contributions to the Allied victory over Fascism in World War II, especially the development and construction of landing craft such as "Higgins Boats" which made rapid landing masses of troops on hostile beaches possible. This legacy is why America's National World War II Museum is located in the city.
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
In August 2005 New Orleans and the surrounding area was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Much worse than the hurricane was the failure of the federally designed levee system; in what has been called "the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S. history" when some 80% of the city flooded.
New Orleans was not destroyed, but the flood was a severe blow, perhaps the worst disaster to hit a U.S. city since the great San Francisco earthquake 99 years previous. A decade later, many visitors might notice little or no sign that anything bad happened. For locals, however, rebuilding is still an ongoing process. The French Quarter and other oldest parts of town most popular with visitors were built on comparatively high ground, and were less damaged and have been more quickly restored. However, not everything is back to normal in the city; scenes of devastation can be still seen in many neighborhoods. More than two-thirds of the city's pre-Katrina population is back living in the city; most of them have a fierce love of their city and have faced many hardships in their continuing efforts to rebuild it bit by bit.
The city's public services - especially police - have struggled to return to their full strength, and are dealing with a city where decades of neighborhood stability have been disrupted. The city overall has experienced an increase in crime as a result. (See "Stay safe" below.)
While some visitors decide to confine their trip to the more fully intact parts of the city or just visit the worse hit areas as part of a half-day "disaster tour", for others the historic events of Katrina and its aftermath are the focus of their visit.
Volunteer projects such as New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity which builds new houses has attracted volunteers doing good work. Organizations such as Levees.org are vigilant in encouraging further investigation into the flooding and hurricane protection issues surrounding New Orleans, and visitors to the city are encouraged to tour ravaged areas and help keep alive the attention needed to restore New Orleans to its original grandeur.
If you are visiting the French Quarter, casinos, or just the Central Business District, a car may be more of a burden than an asset. Most hotel parking is valet/remote/expensive/difficult at best. New Orleans is ready for visitors, and the rapid transit, trolley cars, and buses are plentiful 24/7. Walking is fun and healthy during daylight and early evening. After midnight, you may want to call a taxi, but likely it will be a short trip at a reasonable cost. For a great way to see the city, try renting a bike from one of the several bike rental companies in the French Quarter or Marigny.
Be alert that the streets of much of the city were laid out before the automobile, especially in the older parts of the town of most interest to visitors. There are many one way streets, and in some neighborhoods, two-way side streets may be so narrow that cars going one way may need to pull to the side to let vehicles going the other way pass when someone has parked on the street.
Due to consolidation of the underlying soils, potholes are common and road conditions are often poor for a developed country.
Street signage is sometimes unclear or missing, and some signage lost in Katrina not yet replaced, although the situation has been improving significantly.
Parking is often hard to find around many areas of interest to tourists, but there are generally pay lots in the area.
Those who don't know how to parallel park may wish to just leave their car in a pay lot when visiting much of the city.
Those staying in or near the French Quarter can easily get around by foot, with optional occasional trips by streetcar, bus, or cab if they wish to visit other parts of town. In the French Quarter, bicycle rentals are available at a bike shop on Dauphine Street near the hotels of Canal St as well as at an antique shop on Decatur Street near the French Market. Other places with bike rentals include a bicycle shop in the Marigny Triangle neighborhood on Frenchmen Street and another Uptown on Magazine Street.
The Riverfront, Canal Street and St. Charles streetcars travel to or near many of the sites listed here. All buses and streetcars provide change cards that can be used towards future rides on buses and streetcars (even the St. Charles streetcar line, which has posted signs claiming that no change is given). On the old cars on the St. Charles line, you need to push the rear doors to open them when the streetcar stops. Be sure to push hard!
Public transit is by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority ("RTA").
Note on Mardi Gras: During Mardi Gras in February, transportation of any sort will be a challenge. If you decide to get your own car, parking will be exorbitant in the French Quarter and the City Area. Should you try to get a taxi, chances are you will have to call more than one company, and several times each, before you get a booking. After that, you will probably have to wait an average of 45 minutes to one hour. If you wish to travel from across town during Mardi Gras, it is strongly recommended that you do get a car and park close to the streetcars or just outside the city area.
The older neighborhoods of the city, (which comprise nearly 45% of the city), were laid out along the banks of the Mississippi River. Except for the grid of the French Quarter, streets were laid out either following the river's curves or perpendicular to them, not according to compass directions or a grid.
For this reason, locals in these parts of town often don't give directions according to "north, south, east, and west". The four directions, instead, are "up" (or "up river" or "up town"), "down" (or "down river" or "down town"), "river" (or "towards the river" or sometimes "in"), and "lake" (or "towards the lake" or "back" or sometimes "out"). Don't be daunted, this makes sense when you take a moment to understand it.
Look at a map of the city. If, for example, you are taking the streetcar that runs along Saint Charles Avenue from the French Quarter to Carrollton, you see that the route starts off going south, then over some miles gradually turns west, and winds up running northwest. This is because Saint Charles reflects a bend in the river. From the local perspective, the entire route goes one way: up (or on the return trip from Carrollton to the Quarter, down).
Know that Canal Street is the up river boundary of the French Quarter. (Keep going further "up" away from the Quarter and you'll be in "Uptown".)
Some streets are labeled "North" and "South", this reflects which side of Canal Street they are on (despite the fact that Canal Street runs from southeast to northwest). The part of Rampart Street on the French Quarter side is North Rampart Street; the part on the Central Business District side is South Rampart. Also, a good map of the entire city is a must, as people from out of town may have to learn to simply match letters on signs to letters on the map. You see, most street names are French and Creole in origin and may be hard to pronounce. For instance, try to pronounce these example street names: Urquhart, Rocheblave, Dorgenois, Terpsichore, Tchoupitoulas, Burthe, Freret. (For the record, locals say "Urk-heart, Roach-a-blave, Der-gen-wa, Terp-sic-cor, Chop-a-two-lis, B'youth, Fa-ret.") Now you understand.
Many major New Orleans streets are divided, with a "neutral ground" (median) running down the middle. For this reason, the traffic lights have no dedicated cycle for a protected left turn. On streets with a wide neutral ground, there is a solution. Imagine turning from an avenue to a street; the solution is to turn left on green, queue in the stretch of the street between the two halves of the avenue, then proceed once the traffic light on the street has turned green. On streets with a narrow neutral ground, there is not enough room for cars to queue. In these situations, left turns are often prohibited; the solution is to go straight, take the next U-turn, then take a right turn when you arrive back at the intersection. Streets such as Tulane Avenue famously have "No Left Turn" signs posted for miles. In these situations, the adage "three rights make a left" comes in handy.
Some top children and family-friendly attractions in New Orleans include:
In addition to year-round attractions, a series of celebrations and festivals provide additional interest:
New Orleans is justly famous for the music it produces. In some other places live music may be thought of as occasional luxury; in New Orleans, live music is an essential part of the fabric of life. Parades from the grandest Mardi Gras spectaculars to small neighborhood club events have to have bands to get the locals dancing in the streets. Hey, New Orleans is the birthplace of the "jazz funeral".
There are usually several good performers somewhere in town even on a slow night. Understand that most of the good stuff is not along the tourist strip of Bourbon Street (though a couple of genuine good music venues exist even there). Most sections of the city have at least one (and often several) venue offering great live music.
Budget travelers should know there are usually at least a few free live music events every week in various parks and galleries around town. More often than not, on Sundays, there will be a brass band "second line" parade somewhere in town.
The best ways to keep informed about who is playing where and when:
OK, so you're hungry. You've come to the right place. New Orleans is a culinary delight, but don't look too hard for healthy food; some would say don't look at all (although those demanding vegetarian, vegan, or kosher food can, with effort, find some). You're on vacation, so take advantage of what they prepare best here. New Orleans has good food for people on any type of budget.
While most places take major credit cards, "cash only" restaurants are perhaps a bit more common here than other places, so plan in advance.
The main culinary tradition in New Orleans is Creole - which means the culture and its cuisine already flourishing when Louisiana was purchased by the U.S. in 1803. The Creoles were the peoples originally in New Orleans from its founding. Creole has a mixture of influences, including French and Spanish, with a strong West-African foundation. Creoles cook with roux (a blend of butter and flour) and the "trinity," a popular term for green pepper, onion, and celery. These are the base for many savory dishes. 19th-century southern Italian immigrants added increased appreciation for garlic — an old local joke calls garlic the "Pope" to the culinary "Trinity" — along with tomato-based sauces and other dishes. (The influences went both ways; some New Orleans "Italian" restaurants have their own take on the Italian tradition, sometimes called "Creole Italian".) Eastern European, Latin American, Vietnamese, and other immigrants have added to the New Orleans mix. Thus New Orleans cuisine is rich in tradition while open to new ideas, and culturally inclusive while still uniquely distinctive.
The seafood is fresh and relatively cheap compared to many places. Some think it is often best fried, but you can try seafood of a wide variety cooked many different ways here. Repeated studies have shown that the 2010 oil spill has not at all affected the quality of Gulf seafood.
Oysters are a popular specialty, gulped down raw, battered and fried, in a po' boy sandwich, or elegant Rockefeller style.
There may on occasion be some exotic items on the menu. Yes, you can have alligator if you’d like - it mostly tastes like chicken (but chewier). The softshell crab can be excellent. If it's on the menu of a good restaurant, it's probably pretty good — when in doubt, ask.
Crawfish (don't say "cray" fish) is a popular dish here, usually boiled in a huge pot of very spicy water and served in a pile with corn and potatoes. If cracking open the shells and sucking the heads isn't your thing, try them with pasta or in sushi or any other way they’re prepared.
Po-boys (don't say "poor boys") are the distinctive New Orleans variation of the sandwich. Unless you request your sandwich put on something else like sliced white bread (while you're in New Orleans, don't bother), it will be served on a po-boy loaf, similar to French bread; bread pundits debate whether the New Orleans po-boy bread is the same thing as the baguette of France or qualifies as its own unique type of bread (some say it actually IS French bread but because of the humidity, the bread ferments very quickly and gets its distinctive taste and texture). Either way, it's good, but only part of what makes the sandwich tasty. The rest is what is put on it, of course. Roast beef with "debris" gravy, fried shrimp, oysters, etc... You'll probably be asked if you want it "dressed". In New Orleans, "dressed" means with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and sometimes pickles, depending on the restaurant. Every neighborhood in New Orleans has its favorite po-boy places; the better ones butcher, slow cook, and season their own meats. The po-boy is a great and filling taste of New Orleans at a reasonable price.
The Muffaletta is a sandwich served on a big round airy Italian loaf (also called a muffaletta) which is similar to focaccia, it consists of a variety of sliced meats such as capicola, salami, and mortadella as well as cheeses topped with olive salad. Unless you have a very big appetite, half a muffaletta will probably be plenty for a filling meal. It was created in New Orleans around 1906 at Central Grocery on Decatur where you can still purchase them.
Gumbo is a tasty Louisiana traditional stew, originating in West-Africa and comes in numerous varieties. The vegetable base is traditionally okra (in West-Africa, the Wollof language word "gombo" means okra) with filé (sassafras leaves) used as a thickener. Seafood is the most common meat; but one will just as often find chicken, duck, smoked sausage or "andouille" sausage, the ages-old "gombo d'zherbes" (vegetarian) and other types of gumbo on many a menu. Gumbo is universally served with rice.
Red beans and rice sounds bland but is a tasty, comforting treat prepared in the New Orleans way. The beans are slowly cooked until they reach a creamy texture, with a mix of onions, bell pepper, celery, and spices. Especially traditional on Mondays. It can be vegetarian but may not be; ask. It is often served with spicy, smoked or "andouille" sausage.
Local fresh produce: Have you heard of Louisiana strawberries, satsumas and creole tomatoes? If not, it's probably because they're so good that locals eat most of them right here! The strawberries come in around Jazz Fest time, satsumas in December and the creole tomatoes in early summer. You may spot "mirliton"; on the menu, a vegetable not common in most of the United States. In Mexico and the Southwest, it is called "chayote", though travelers to Guatemala may recognize it as the same thing that's called "hisquil" down there. Of course, when the first crops come in, there are parties, festivals, and parades commemorating the strawberries, creole tomatoes, or mirlitons.
Desserts
Bananas Foster might be the most well known Orleanian delicacy served at the end of a fine meal. Consisting of warmed bananas mixed with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and rum poured over vanilla ice cream; it is usually made flambe style in front of the customer just before serving. There are a number of restaurants in the French Quarter that specialize in combining the show of making it and serving it as well.
Snow balls or sno-balls are the New Orleans take on the northern "snow cone" or flavored ice done with more finesse. Ice is not crushed but shaved into microscopically fine snow in special machines, and flavored with syrups, fresh made at the better places. New Orleans sno-balls are often topped or layered with sweetened condensed milk, but this is optional. The flavors need not be overly sweet and can come in a wide variety ranging from striking to subtle, including such treats as wild cherry, lemonade, chocolate cream, coffee, orchid vanilla, and dozens of others. Locals almost worship the better neighborhood sno-ball stands during the city's long hot summer; try the refreshing treat as a snack or dessert and find out why. Note, many snowball shops will close in the winter, as New Orleans is surprisingly chilly between November and February and the demand dies down.
Beignets (pronounced "ben-yays") are a deep-fried square pastry covered with powdered sugar. Most famously found at Morning Call & Café du Monde, Beignets are a traditional New Orleans treat enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. Beignets are traditionally served in orders of three with café au lait.
Café au lait is a coffee served half brewed coffee and half hot milk. Coffee in New Orleans differs from any other coffee in the world. During the Civil War, coffee beans were very scarce. The local French extended their coffee supply by adding ground roasted chicory (the root of endive lettuce) to the brew. New Orleanians became very accustomed to the new beverage, noting that the chicory softened the bitter edge of the coffee while enhancing the robust flavor. Many taste a slight chocolate flavor while drinking café au lait, due to the addition of chicory.
Many restaurants will have hot sauce as a condiment on the table (even Chinese and fast-food restaurants). Louisiana is the creator of Tabasco sauce after all. Although always flavorful, not all New Orleans food will be very spicy hot. Many locals do like to add hot sauce to many dishes. If you can take it, give it a try.
In many of the fine restaurants around town, people take their clothes as seriously as their food. Despite the obnoxious heat and humidity in the summertime, don’t go to these restaurants dressed in shorts/jeans; they won’t let you in. This applies only to the nicest (and some say best) restaurants in town but there are plenty of places that you can wear shorts to (many of which are great too). This is what you've been saving your pennies for.
The legal drinking age is 21 in Louisiana. Like most of the United States, the drinking age is strictly enforced and most establishments will check ID. However, notably unlike the vast majority of US cities, drinking in public is legal everywhere in the city, provided it is from a plastic cup. New Orleans also has no "blue laws" or mandatory closing times for liquor establishments, which means that any hour of day or night, every day of the year, there is always somewhere to get alcohol.
You can head out the door with an open container of alcohol — but not in a bottle or can; to try to keep the broken glass and jagged metal from filling the street, local laws mandate you use a plastic cup while on city streets and sidewalks. These are known locally as "go cups", and every local bar provides them, usually has a stack of them by the door and the bouncer will take your drink from you and pour it into the cup because bars can be held liable if they don't. Use them, because New Orleans Police are watching for it, especially on Bourbon Street.
Some drinks are noted for their potency, such as the tourist favorite "Hurricane" (a fruit punch and rum drink), which originated at Pat O'Brien's bar but now common in the Quarter. However, drinking does not have to be about quantity. Popular refined local cocktails include the "sazerac" and the "Ramos gin fizz". New Orleanians also love wine.
Beer lovers should try local brews like "Abita" on tap, from light Wheat to dark "Turbodog" to the quirky "Purple Haze", a raspberry beer loved by some. "NOLA" (New Orleans Lager & Ale) Brewery opened Uptown in 2008 and has become a favorite of local beer lovers as well.
Listings of some top choices of the city's bars, from friendly neighborhood dives to elegant cocktail palaces, can be found in the neighborhood articles.
Especially if you're drinking alcohol (but even if you aren't), be sure to drink a lot of water or other non-alcoholic beverages to avoid dehydration in the southern heat and humidity.
New Orleans is a great coffee city. A good portion of the Eastern US's coffee beans are imported through the Port of New Orleans and roasted in local factories. Locals tend to take a good cup of coffee seriously, and in New Orleans, coffee tends to be a bit stronger and more flavorful than in most of the USA. Café du Monde in the French Quarter is probably the city's most historic coffee destination, serving café au lait with chicory since 1862. Popular locally based coffee house chains PJ's and CC's have locations around the city serving good hot and cold coffee drinks. New Orleans also has a wealth of local neighborhood coffee shops.
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Welcome to New Orleans, the real haven of brightness and happiness in the State of Louisiana. This friendly port is our departure point, a gateway to warm Caribbean & Bermuda cruises. There are so many exciting tourist attractions in New Orleans , Louisiana! So don’t hurry to board a cruise... |
The city of New Orleans is absolutely wonderful. It’s "the birthplace of jazz", "the birthplace of blues" and "the city where the days are always passing fun".
Every year, between late January and early February,
New Orleans
traditionally becomes a "crazy town", when the madness and... |