A guide to New Orleans, USA
Join jazz hounds, mixology maestros and thrilled foodies beside the bayou
Why board British Airways' new service from Heathrow to New Orleans (launching 27 March)? Try a jazz-drenched music scene, the world's funkiest food and enough high jinks, open-mindedness and love to shine through the current political fog.
What to see
The Big Easy's centre is a small rectangle. Welcome to the French Quarter: an immersive world of colonial buildings, hedonistic bars, voodoo psychics and a unique brand of brouhaha. More elegant, the adjacent Warehouse District houses an innovative National World War II Museum, plus galleries showcasing Southern and contemporary art.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Take some time out
Local swamp tours – New Orleans is beside the Mississippi Delta and Lake Pontchartrain – promise not just alligator sightings, but also relaxing hours spent amid mossy channels. Steamboat rides upriver are similarly soporific, while equally classic are the city's iconic streetcars. Ride the St Charles Line to gawp at beautiful, plantation-style mansions.
What and where to eat
The classic eats are beignets – fried dough-balls, best scoffed at Cafe du Monde – and po' boy baguette sandwiches, for which Barack Obama visited Parkway. Otherwise, local food blogger Emily Smith touts a Garden District haunt. "Though it may seem strange to suggest Latin/Caribbean tapas in New Orleans," she says, "Baru Bistro is simply serving some of the city's best flavours right now. One of my favourites is the skirt steak with chimichurri and manchego-cheese fries."
What and where to drink
Cocktails were supposedly invented here and institutional French Quarter venues such as Arnaud's French 75 still claim the best mixologists around. The Big Easy also excels at music and partying: as tiny Preservation Hall hosts nightly jazz concerts, livelier all-night joints all along Bourbon Street cover just about every musical alternative.
Don't miss…
Bywater scores for avant-garde art and hipsterism, but is hardly a secret; the fastest emerging area is Central City. A former hub of 1960s civil-rights activism, main drag Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard is re-emerging; witness the shabby-chic Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center and unexpectedly fun Southern Food & Beverage Museum.
The best place to stay
Situated amid an ex-furniture store, the Ace Hotel's boasts include open-plan rooms with SMEG fridges and hand-painted antiques, and the lobby's Stumptown Coffee Roasters cafe. The highlight, however, is rooftop venue Alto, whose garden, pool and pretzel dogs are open to the public.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'This needs to be a bigger deal'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Magazine solutions - November 29, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 29, 2024
By The Week US Published
-
Magazine printables - November 29, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 29, 2024
By The Week US Published
-
8 new cookbooks for a delicious fall
The Week Recommends With a big ole emphasis on baking. Because it is the season.
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
When Mexico met the US: a restaurant guide
The Week Recommends A new generation of chefs is intertwining their Mexican heritage with a distinctly localized sense of American food
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
7 bars for drinking your way through the summer months
The Week Recommends Lots of frozen drinks, of course. But, most of all, easy-breezy, welcoming vibes.
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
Get into the groove at these delightful record stores
The Week Recommends Each one strikes its own chord
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
7 bars here for your spring thirst
The Week Recommends Seven cities. Seven exciting drinking destinations.
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
7 kooky pit stops for your next road trip
The Week Recommends These offbeat attractions are worth pulling over for
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
7 spooky places to visit this October
The Week Recommends These spots are perfect for scaredy cats, ghost hunters and everyone in between
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
College student who delivered baby before graduation surprised with ceremony at hospital
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published