Hotels in New Orleans

New Orleans is the least American-feeling city in the United States, founded by the French, ruled by the Spanish, and shaped ever since by Caribbean, African and Creole influences that produced jazz, gumbo and a calendar built around festivals.

The French Quarter is the historic core, where wrought-iron balconies overhang Royal Street and Bourbon Street handles the noise. Frenchmen Street a few blocks east is where locals go for live music, the Garden District has antebellum mansions along the St Charles streetcar line, and Treme is the neighbourhood where jazz took shape.

Food is inseparable from a visit: po'boys, beignets at Café du Monde, crawfish boils in spring, and Creole institutions that have been running for a century. Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest are the two peaks of the year, and the swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin start half an hour outside town.