New Orleans is packed with enough buzz to satisfy most travellers, but whether you’re stopping in the thrusting city or heading further out into the Gulf Coast region, you’ll find a unique, never to be forgotten experience.
Music and Mardi Gras
The famous New Orleans Mardi Gras moves around on the calendar – expect to find it in late February or early March – and it’s perhaps the most colourful icon of this already fun city.
The history of Mardi Gras dates back hundreds of years, constantly shrinking and then growing, passing from favour then reviving.
It’s great for families, especially those with a sweet tooth, as one of the most popular traditions is the consumption of ‘king cake’, iced in green, gold and purple.
For many, New Orleans is the home of jazz, and there are countless festivals and clubs where the traditions are celebrated and renewed. You can explore the past at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, or bear witness to the present at the Snug Harbor, one of the city’s leading jazz clubs, with two shows per night, seven days a week.
The melting pot
New Orleans is full of interesting, instagrammable buildings, from French colonial to Spanish influenced. You can just wander from district to district, museum to museum, club to club to take it all in, or join a more structured architectural tour.
Some whisk you through antebellum mansions and graceful gardens, others focus on the French Quarter. Chances are you’ll be left with incredible memories and a hankering to up sticks and move to one of the soaring southern mansions you’ll have fallen in love with.
Under the Dome
The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is home to the New Orleans Saints American football team, and if they’re at home while you’re visiting, it’s worth trying to get a ticket to enjoy the unique atmosphere of game day.
In addition to hosting Super Bowls, it’s also a venue for big ticket concerts, Wrestlemania, NBA games, monster car rallies and jazz festivals.
We’ve barely scratched the surface of what this city has to offer, and car hire at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will let you get right to the heart of the action.
