Diana K. Schwam - Frommers EasyGuide to New Orleans 2016

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ISBN 978-1-62887-194-4 (paper), 978-1-62887-195-1 (e-book)

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Editor: Alexis Lipsitz Flippin

Production Editor: Kevin Cristaldi

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5 4 3 2 1

Frommer's Star Ratings System

Every hotel, restaurant and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Here's what the stars mean:

Recommended

Highly Recommended

A must! Don't miss!

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and busses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about, these hotels, restaurants, museums and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diana K. Schwam, writer and strategic marketing consultant, has authored six books, numerous articles, and scads of content about New Orleans. She followed a familiar path to the city: vacation; enrapture; return; return again; increased tolerance of fleur de lis iconography; homeownership; increased tolerance of everything else; weight gain; contentment. In her spare time, she enjoys music, film, tennis, biking, a well-balanced cocktail, and breathing on an ongoing basis. Ms. Schwam claps on the twos and fours.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Moonpie for 18 years of wonderful fluff and nary a moment of seriousness. Almost.

Much thanks to Arthur and Pauline Frommer for your courage, confidence, inspiration, and wisdom. Massive appreciation to the kindly and ever-patient Alexis Lipsitz. Infinite love to the city, the people, and the ghosts of New Orleans; its eccentric elegance and eternal mysteries; its tellers of tales and truths: They are as warm and essential to me as its air. Love to the Fat Pack (Chuck, Fiona, John, Nettie, Robin, Steve and Wesly) and the Plumpettes (Gary, Linda, Mark and Paula). With love to the Schwams, Beers, Dileos, Zuckerbergs and to Harch, Scot and Drew Brees. I love the North Rendon All Stars (my cypress windows beat up your vinyl replacement inserts). Love ever to Dave and Mary, of course.

ABOUT THE FROMMERS TRAVEL GUIDES

For most of the past 50 years, Frommers has been the leading series of travel guides in North America, accounting for as many as 24% of all guidebooks sold. I think I know why.

Although we hope our books are entertaining, we nevertheless deal with travel in a serious fashion. Our guidebooks have never looked on such journeys as a mere recreation, but as a far more important human function, a time of learning and introspection, an essential part of a civilized life. We stress the culture, lifestyle, history, and beliefs of the destinations we cover and urge our readers to seek out people and new ideas as the chief rewards of travel.

We have never shied from controversy. We have, from the beginning, encouraged our authors to be intensely judgmental, criticalboth pro and conin their comments, and wholly independent. Our only clients are our readers, and we have triggered the ire of countless prominent sorts, from a tourist newspaper we called practically worthless (it unsuccessfully sued us) to the many rip-offs weve condemned.

And because we believe that travel should be available to everyone regardless of their incomes, we have always been cost-conscious at every level of expenditure. Although we have broadened our recommendations beyond the budget category, we insist that every lodging we include be sensibly priced. We use every form of media to assist our readers and are particularly proud of our feisty daily website, the award-winning Frommers.com.

I have high hopes for the future of Frommers. May these guidebooks, in all the years ahead, continue to reflect the joy of travel and the freedom that travel represents. May they always pursue a cost-conscious path, so that people of all incomes can enjoy the rewards of travel. And may they create, for both the traveler and the persons among whom we travel, a community of friends, where all human beings live in harmony and peace.

Arthur Frommer

THE BEST OF NEW ORLEANS

N ew Orleans should come with a warning label. No, no, not about hurricanes. Thats like solely identifying Hawaii with erupting volcanoes. No, this is about the city itself. See, theres this group of residents known as the never lefts. They are the people who come to New Orleans as tourists, and the city worked its magic on them.

They become spellbound by the beauty of the French Quarter and the Garden District, and marvel that history is alive right beneath their feet. They listen to music flowing from random doorways and street cornersjazz, Cajun, blues, whateverand find themselves moving to a languorous rhythm. They kiss beneath flickering gas lamps, and groove to a brass band in a crowded club long past their usual bedtime. They eat sumptuous, indulgent meals, and scandalously indulge yet again hours later, with 3am beignets at Caf du Monde, where they watch the passing human parade. Theyll catch the scent of jasmine and sweet olive (with a whiff of the Caribbean, and a garlic topnote, perhaps) wafting through the moist, honeyed air.

The air... aah, the New Orleans air. People say romance is in the air here. Its true, of course, because the air is dreamy. Its the dewy ingnue who grows up fast in the first act, softly whispering your name. And if youre meant to be together, youll feel that undeniable flutter, the high-voltage spark that says youre in my heart forever.

Thats what happens to the never lefts. They came for Mardi Gras, for a festival, a conference, a tryst, wedding, reunionjust cameand fell hard. New Orleans does that to people.

What is it about this place? Well, for one thing, New Orleans is where centuries commingle, perhaps not effortlessly but nowhere more fruitfully, as if nothing essential has passed between them. Its where a barstool or a park bench becomes the opening salvo in a conversation you may never forgetfor raconteurship thrives here. Its where a masquerade party of old masters, modernists, and bohemian street artists fill the citys stunning mlange of museums and galleries. Its a city that actually has an official cocktail which speaks volumes to its state of mind. Its where gumbothe savory Creole stew that is often (over) used in describing the citys multicultural tableauis actually an apt metaphor: It speaks of a place thats deep and mysterious, rich with flavor and spiked with spice, and so much more than the sum of its many disparate parts.