New Orleans Travel Guide
New Orleans is one of the most distinctive cities in the United States — a place where the food, music, architecture, and atmosphere combine into something that exists almost nowhere else on earth. The cuisine alone, rooted in French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean traditions over three centuries, is reason enough to visit. The live music that seeps out of every bar on Frenchmen Street, the extraordinary antebellum mansions of the Garden District, the theatrical grandeur of the French Quarter, and an atmosphere of genuine hedonism that never feels cheap make it one of the great American travel experiences.
New Orleans rewards travelers who approach it slowly. The instinct is to pack in as much as possible — more restaurants, more bars, more neighborhoods. The better approach is to settle into fewer things more deeply. A long lunch at Commander’s Palace. A full evening on Frenchmen Street. A morning walk through the Garden District with nowhere to be. The city reveals itself to people who give it time.
Our New Orleans coverage is built on real visits and strong opinions. No restaurant paid to be featured, and no hotel sponsored a recommendation.
Where to stay in New Orleans:
See our full best hotels in New Orleans guide for the complete breakdown by neighborhood.
Where to eat and drink in New Orleans:
Commander’s Palace in the Garden District for the definitive New Orleans brunch — white tablecloths, tuxedoed servers, 25-cent martinis, and a menu that has anchored the city’s cuisine for over a century. Herbsaint on St. Charles Avenue for the best modern Louisiana cooking, Donald Link’s flagship and the dinner reservation serious food travelers make first. Coquette on Magazine Street for a Michelin-starred tasting menu in a beautifully restored 1880s building. Galatoire’s on Bourbon Street for the old-school Friday lunch that goes on for hours and hasn’t changed since 1905. The Columns Hotel porch for cocktails as the St. Charles streetcar rattles past — the most romantic spot in the city and the one that makes you understand why people who visit once keep coming back.
See our full New Orleans travel guide for the complete restaurant, bar, and activities coverage — including Frenchmen Street for live music, the National WWII Museum, and how to spend a week doing the city properly.
Best time to visit New Orleans: March through May and October through November are the sweet spots — comfortable temperatures, manageable humidity, and the city at its most livable. Jazz Fest in late April and early May is the single best week to visit: perfect weather, the city fully alive, and a genuinely world-class festival. Summer is brutal — heat, humidity, and mosquitoes make extended outdoor time genuinely unpleasant. Mardi Gras is extraordinary if you know what you’re doing, but requires months of advance planning for accommodation and a high tolerance for crowds.
New Orleans is unlike any other American city — jazz drifting through the streets, Creole cooking that takes days to make, and a built environment that feels more European than Southern. Our guide to doing it well.