New Orleans

New Orleans, founded by French colonists in 1718, served as the territorial capital of French Louisiana before the United States acquired it in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. By 1840 it was the third most populous city in the country, and it remained the largest city in the American South until after World War II. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded more than 80 percent of the city; the Caesars Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints, sheltered thousands of residents during the storm, and major redevelopment has followed in the years since.

The French Quarter, the city's oldest neighborhood, is a National Historic Landmark district where most surviving buildings date to the late 1700s and early 1800s, after fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed much of the earlier French-built city. Uptown, the Garden District was developed between 1832 and 1900 by wealthy Americans who built mansions separate from the French Quarter's Creole population; it's considered one of the best-preserved collections of historic mansions in the South. The St. Charles Streetcar Line, running since 1835, connects the two, and is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world.

New Orleans cuisine blends French, Spanish, African, Native American and Caribbean traditions into dishes such as beignets, po'boys, muffulettas, gumbo, jambalaya and étouffée. The city's music grew from the same mix of cultures; enslaved people were permitted to gather and play their own music at Congo Square, now part of Louis Armstrong Park in the Tremé neighborhood, and that tradition helped give rise to jazz in the early 20th century. Learn more about that history at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, a free National Park Service site nearby.

The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is New Orleans's oldest neighborhood and a National Historic Landmark, laid out in 1721 with streets named for French royal houses and Catholic saints. Its architecture, mostly rebuilt after 18th-century fires under Spanish rule, blends French and Spanish Creole styles with ironwork balconies and courtyards.

The French Quarter holds a dense concentration of restaurants serving Creole specialties like gumbo, jambalaya and po'boys.

The Garden District and Uptown, along the St. Charles Streetcar route, offer additional dining away from the Quarter's busier blocks.

10 breweries within 10 miles of New Orleans, 2 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

Both of New Orleans's major-league teams, the Saints and the Pelicans, play their home games within the city itself.

6 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of New Orleans in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• Baton RougeLouisianaabout 75 mi
• BiloxiMississippiabout 75 mi
• LafayetteLouisianaabout 120 mi
• MobileAlabamaabout 130 mi
• NatchezMississippiabout 140 mi
• JacksonMississippiabout 160 mi

• Abita Mystery House (UCM Museum)Quirky museumAbita Springsabout 36 miles away

  Cost to see it

  Costs something — we did not find the price published

  When you can see it

  Only while it is open, and we did not find its hours published

  Nearest road

  LA-36 / I-12

  Junk-art museum home of the bassigator and House of Shards

  Read on the page we checked

These are things you can go and look at, not a recommendation of any of them. Oddities move, get sold and quietly disappear more than anything else we list, so check anything you are driving a long way for. Where this list says we did not find a price or opening times published, that is exactly what we mean. A blank is not “free” and not “always open”. Some sit on private land and can only be seen from the road — please do not go onto anyone’s property. Every entry links the page we read it off.

A full day covers the French Quarter; a separate half day covers the Garden District and a streetcar ride between the two.

The St. Charles Streetcar is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority and runs the length of St. Charles Avenue.

The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park's visitor center is free, according to the National Park Service.

New Orleans remains vulnerable to flooding, and a system of levees and drainage pumps protects the low-lying city today.

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park

Address

916 N Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70116

Hours

Check the official site for current hours

Price

Free

Link

nps.gov/jazz

Straight-line distance from New Orleans, not drive time.

• Lakefront (NEW) — 7 miles
• Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) — 12 miles
• Gulfport Biloxi International (GPT) — 68 miles