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New Orleans Travel Guide

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Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans LA forever. Although the French Quarter, with its legendary Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras festivities, was relatively unharmed by Hurricane Katrina, areas such as the Ninth Ward sustained heavy flood damage. Rebuilding New Orleans is a slow process, but many of the enchanting city’s tourist areas have reopened.
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Destination Guidebook for New Orleans, Louisiana
Introduction   |   Must See or Do   |   Geography   |   History   |   Potpourri
  
It has been said that New Orleans, Louisiana, celebrates indulgence like no other U.S. city; its reputation for revelry, especially during Mardi Gras, is legendary. But after 29 August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed a storm of wind and water that flooded 80% of this vibrant city, the word indulgence took on a different meaning for New Orleans. Pleas for patience went out to residents and visitors alike as the Crescent City brought itself back from the ravages of Katrina.

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The good news is that the 20% of New Orleans that was spared is the most historically significant section of the city, and the well-beaten tourist path is very much back in business. The service sector is largely restored, and the level of hospitality is higher than ever. Residents are effusively appreciative of tourists who visit and leave "donations" in the form of patronage to music clubs, restaurants, retail shops and area attractions.

New Orleans' Central Business District, the French Quarter, the Marigny neighborhood, the Garden District and Uptown along St. Charles Avenue and Magazine Street are all areas left largely untouched by Katrina. In other devastated areas, mostly residential neighborhoods, recovery remains slow, but steady. The city's 2004 population was 462,269, and based on postal service estimates released in late October 2007, the New Orleans area has reached 86% of its pre-Katrina population.

Although New Orleans mourns what was lost, it does so with confidence of a rebirth. A rising spirit of renewal is evident there, and most businesses have reopened. Before Hurricane Katrina, metropolitan New Orleans had 3,414 restaurants; more than 3,000 have since repened. The vast majority of popular tourist restaurants are back, although a few may have limited staff and shorter hours.

Even Hurricane Katrina couldn't get in the way of the city's favorite celebration, Mardi Gras. The 12-day festivities culminate on Fat Tuesday, with dozens of parades following the traditional Uptown route down Napoleon Avenue to St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street. In 2008, Mid-City krewes, such as Endymion, return to their Mid-City routes.

New Orleans is an extraordinary city, and with its unique culture and history, it has long enchanted a wide variety of visitors with a penchant for the romantic, the spiritual, the beautiful or the unusual. (In what other U.S. city would a voodoo priestess be buried next to the mayor's family, or funerals be celebrated with a jazz band and a processional?) That feeling of enchantment still exists, although post-Katrina New Orleans is changing, moment by moment.

 
Must See or DoTop  Back to the top

Sights—St. Louis Cathedral and the French Quarter (also called Vieux Carre); the Garden District; Woldenberg Riverfront Park; an aboveground cemetery.

Museums—The Ogden Museum of Southern Art; The Cabildo; the Historic New Orleans Collection; the National World War II Museum.

Memorable Meals—Grilled shrimp at Bayona; brunch at Brennan's Restaurant; a muffeletta at Central Grocery.

Late Night—Bourbon Street nightlife; Mid-City Lanes Rock 'n' Bowl for zydeco music; Tipitina's for local R&B acts; Snug Harbor for traditional jazz; Frenchmen Street for club-hopping; coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde.

Walks—A nighttime stroll along The Moonwalk to view the Mississippi; daytime walks along St. Charles Avenue and through Audubon Park; the neighborhoods of the Garden District.

Especially for Kids—The Discovery Garden at Longue Vue House and Gardens; Audubon Aquarium of the Americas; the Audubon Zoo.

 
GeographyTop  Back to the top

New Orleans is sometimes called "the Crescent City" because it curves like a half-moon around a bend of the Mississippi River. Its orientation blunts the points of the traditional compass—no one in New Orleans navigates using north, south, east or west. Local directions refer to "riverside" (toward the Mississippi), "lakeside" (toward Lake Pontchartrain), "uptown" (above Canal Street) and "downtown" (Canal Street and below).

Hurricane Katrina left most of News Orleans underwater. However, the French Quarter, which was the city's first neighborhood, remained dry and intact. Nearby Uptown, an area marked by majestic houses and picturesque parks (bisected by the grandest avenue of them all, St. Charles), also emerged relatively untouched from Katrina and is back to "normal." The same is true of Faubourg Marigny, home of bohemian restaurants and clubs.

However, a vast swath of ruined residential districts contrasts sharply to the bustle of downtown. Outside of the Central Business District, French Quarter and Uptown areas, blocks of destroyed houses lie silent. Although pockets of life are starting to emerge, it remains to be seen what parts of the city will truly be rebuilt. One thing is sure—Katrina forever changed the geography and layout of New Orleans.

 
HistoryTop  Back to the top

The Chitimacha and Chawasha people were the first to recognize the benefits of settling near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The next was French Canadian explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who in 1718 named what is now the French Quarter for Philip, Duc d'Orleans and regent of France. A call went out for settlers.

But few French people were willing to risk life in the mosquito-infested swamplands of Louisiana. French authorities had to lure male settlers with tales of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, beautiful sand beaches and snowcapped mountains. The authorities also had to free 88 women from Parisian prisons to be their brides. Then, they brought African slaves to New Orleans (some of whom continued to practice vodun, or voodoo, a religion that originated in western Africa).

New Orleans remained a French colony until it was transferred to Spain in 1762, but Spain gave it back to France in 1800. Three years later, Napoleon Bonaparte sold New Orleans and 40% of what is now the continental U.S. to President Thomas Jefferson as part of the Louisiana Purchase—at roughly five cents an acre. In 1805, New Orleans was incorporated as a city.

As a major port, the city was assured ongoing growth and prosperity, as well as occasional disturbances. It was the focus of several important battles, including the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and a Civil War siege in 1862 that left the city in the hands of Union forces.

But neither war nor progress has altered its status as one of the most unusual of U.S. cities. Perhaps that's due to its decades of French rule, its relatively remote location in the Deep South and its mixed population of French, Anglo-Americans, African Americans, Italians, Irish, Spanish and Cajuns. Cuban and Vietnamese immigrants have added even more spice to the cultural gumbo.

As people rebuild their homes and businesses in the wake of Katrina, the city's population continues to change, as it becomes home to migrant workers, government employees and contractors. An influx of Hispanic workers have brought cultural changes reflected by Spanish signs and new clubs playing Latin music. Only time will tell how the population will evolve.

 
PotpourriTop  Back to the top

Mardi Gras was a pagan rite of spring before the Roman Catholic Church incorporated it as a last-chance celebration before the rigors of Lent.

The economic success of Mardi Gras is usually measured by weighing the trash that is collected from the streets.

Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire in his French Quarter apartment on St. Peter Street.

The term Creole has been used to describe people, music, ponies, architecture and, of course, food. But purists insist that it should refer only to people, generally with French or Spanish parents, who were born in Louisiana during the colonial period. Descendants of colonial Creoles often claim the name, too, and those of mixed African and European ancestry are sometimes called "black Creoles" or "Creoles of color."

You haven't really experienced a cockroach till you've seen the large palmetto bugs that are everywhere in Louisiana in summer. And one of the worst things about these critters is they fly!

New Orleans has become a popular filming location—don't be surprised to see a few celebrities around town. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt own a home in the French Quarter. Pitt is especially popular with the locals for his can-do attitude toward helping the city rebuild. He has committed US$5 million to his "Make It Right" project, a plan to create more than 100 affordable, ecologically sound homes in the Lower Ninth Ward.