Elite Traveler Spring 2023

EXPLORE NEW ORLEANS

GUIDETO NEW ORLEANS

There’s no city on Earth that stirs the soul and enlivens the spirit quite like New Orleans, a mishmash of creative energy infused with a rich musical heritage, a revered food and cocktail culture, and historical architecture at every turn. The Cajun-French expression “laissez les bons temps rouler” — or, “let the good times roll”— is as much a pastime as it is a pathway for how to embrace life in this intoxicating city. Founded by the French in 1718 and ruled for 40 years by the Spanish before being acquired by the US in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, La Nouvelle-Orléans, as it was once known, continues to preserve its European in fl uence and Southern sophistication better than any other US city. Today, the French Quarter and nearby Faubourg Marigny, with their old colonials and shotgun-style bungalows dripping in iron lace, continue to serve as living examples of the city’s rich multicultural heritage. Meanwhile, the Uptown and leafy Garden District neighborhoods have slowly been drawing the next generation of travelers out of the Quarter in recent years with some of the city’s buzziest new restaurants and charming Victorian-style boutique hotels. By night, all corners of the Crescent City come alive, from the illustrious jazz clubs found along Frenchmen Street and the perennially popular burlesque bars and built-in street parties on Bourbon, to the bohemian bistros and brasseries in the Marigny and beyond. Whatever you do, and wherever you go, just let the good times roll, preferably with a sti ff drink in one hand and a keen sense of adventure and curiosity in the other.

by Michelle Gross