Top things to do

Preservation Hall, housed in a former art gallery dating from 1803, is one of New Orleans' most storied live-music venues. The resident performers, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, are ludicrously talented, and regu…

Friday lunchtime is the best time to visit this revered institution for its traditional Creole cuisine. That’s when local ladies in big hats and gloves and men wearing bowties (without irony) buy copious bottles of …

Sprinkled with lazing loungers, surrounded by sketch artists, fortune tellers and traveling performers, and watched over by cathedrals, offices and shops plucked from a Parisian fantasy, Jackson Sq is one of America…

'Providing shelter from sobriety since 08/08/08', Tonique is a bartender’s bar. Seriously, on a Sunday night, when the weekend rush is over, we’ve seen no fewer than three of the city’s top bartenders arrive here to…

There's no cover charge at this awesome venue for live jazz, which is so small that you really can't have a bad seat. The seating is kind of rustic: benches and chairs so tightly packed that you'll be apologizing fo…

With a massive 30,000-sq-ft showroom, and after a century of doing business, MS Rau ranks among New Orleans’ most venerated dealers of antiques. It’s all a bit serious – these are the sort of frosty antiques that re…

New Orleans is the most costume-crazy city in the USA, and Fifi Mahony's is the place to go to don a wig. There's a stunning selection of hairpieces here that runs the gamut from the glittered to the beehived, prese…

The former seat of government in colonial Louisiana now serves as the gateway to exploring the history of the state in general, and New Orleans in particular. It’s also a magnificent building in its own right; the e…

Though this great tiki bar shares the block with another tiki-themed powerhouse, Latitude 29, they're as different as Tahiti and Hawaii. Here you'll find a small, intimate bar, where it's easy to chat and make new f…

One of the best examples of French architecture in the country, this triple-spired 18th-century cathedral is dedicated to Louis IX, the French king sainted in 1297. It's an attractive bit of Gallic heritage in the h…