This unique museum is housed in a beautifully restored 18C Spanish Colonial manse that managed to survive the city's 1794 fire intact. Changing exhibits and an incredible group of maps, historic documents, drawings and sketches can be viewed on a gui..

To the left of the cathedral stands the Cabildo, erected by the Spanish government in 1799 to house offices of the town council; the papers completing the territory transfers of the Louisiana Purchase were signed here in 1803. Today the handsome buil..

See the sharks, penguins sting rays and sea turtles at this colorful family attraction, located right on the river. The aquarium is designed to take you on a journey through the major aquatic habitats of North and South America, as well as introducin..

Located to the right of St. Louis Cathedral, this c.1790 building-originally called the Ecclesiastical House-was constructed on the site of the 1720 residence, or presbytere, of the Capuchin monks. Be sure to go inside to see the permanent exhibit Ma..

Laid out as a military parade ground known as Place d'Armes, the fenced and landscaped square at the foot of Orleans Street was renamed in 1851 to honor Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), hero of the Battle of New Orleans and seventh US president. The monum..

One of the best preserved historic districts in the US, this neighborhood boasts an unmatched assortment of antebellum mansions (Greek Revival and Italianate styles predominate) erected mostly for Anglo-Saxon newcomers to New Orleans in the mid-19C. ..

Paralleling bawdy Bourbon Street a block away, Royal Street is best for meandering, with frequent pauses to poke through galleries for fine contemporary art or antique furnishings and to gaze upward at intricately whorled galleries of wrought and cas..

Magazine Street today undergoes radical transformations-from upscale to downtrodden-as it proceeds from Audubon Park through the Uptown, Garden, Lower Garden and Warehouse districts to Canal Street. Along the way you'll find a heady mix of coffeehous..

City Park encompasses 1,500 lush acres at the head of Esplanade Avenuea, a broad boulevard that traces an old Choctaw Indian path from the river to the headwaters of Bayou St. John. (French artist Edgar Degas lived at 2306 Esplanade Avenue briefly in..

A jewel in the crown of the Audubon Institute, this gorgeously landscaped zoo contains fun, intriguing and rare animal specimens including white alligators, majestic Bengal tigers and even a Komodo dragon. Wander through the lush terrain through natu..

Formerly the site of a sugar plantation, this serene park opposite Tulane and Loyola universities served as a Union encampment during the Civil War and as the site of the 1884 World's Cotton Centennial, which sparked residential development of uptown..

It may not look like much at first glance, but this private home turned performance hall is still "where you'll find all the greats" in the words of Louis Armstrong. Opened in 1961, Preservation Hall was founded to give local musicians a pl..

This handsome structure ranks as the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the US. Dedicated in 1851, the present structure is actually the third church on this site; a fire destroyed the first one, and the second version collapsed during a reno..

Year-round but especially at Mardi Gras time in February, Bourbon Street teems with cocktail-toting revelers who come to celebrate, to drown sorrows or simply to indulge in the pleasures of this unabashedly hedonistic city. Lights flash, music booms ..

This bustling marketplace (1813) served the daily needs of New Orleans' Creole population. Shops and restaurants occupy the renovated structures today; the downriver building remains open to the air, as it was in the 19C.

The dark, Romanesque-style building (1891), with its stunning cypress interior, houses a fine collection of paintings, photographs, uniforms, battle memorabilia and other artifacts of the Civil War, including personal belongings of Robert E. Lee, Sto..

During the late 1940s beloved American author Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885-1970) restored this 1826 Louisiana raised cottage, which had been the residence of Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard for 18 months following the Civil War. Beauregard fam..

The Pontalba buildings (mid-19th c.), the first apartment blocks in America, extend along two sides of Jackson Square. In the block on the eastern side, known as 1850 House, the Louisiana State Museum has a display of furnishings and decorative arts ..

The Warehouse District thrives as the center of visual arts activity in New Orleans. Warehouses that sprang up behind riverfront docks in the early 19C are now reborn as studios, condominiums and museums, while street-level storefronts along Julia St..

A wide, beautiful thoroughfare overhung with enormous live-oak trees. The St. Charles Streetcar line that traces the 5mi from Canal Street to Carrollton Avenue. Gracious antebellum and Victorian mansions line either side of the avenue.