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INTRODUCTION

As it enters its fourth century, New Orleans remains proudly apart from the rest of the United States. Intoxicating and addictive, the product of a dizzying jumble of cultures, peoples and influences, it’s a place where people dance at funerals and hold parties during hurricanes, where some of the world’s finest musicians make ends meet busking on street corners, and fabulous Creole cuisine is dished up in hole-in-the-wall dives. There’s a wistfulness, too, in the peeling, ice-cream–toned facades of the old French Quarter – site of the original settlement – in the filigree cast-iron balconies overgrown with lush ferns and fragrant jasmine, and in the cemeteries, or "Cities of the Dead", lined with crumbling above-ground tombs. Doubtless New Orleans’ melancholy air – and perhaps its joie de vivre, too – is due to the city’s perilous geography. Set largely below sea level, and exposed to the devastating storms that career through the Gulf of Mexico, the city could be washed or! blasted away in an instant.

Founded by the French in 1718 on the swampy flood plain of the lower Mississippi River, and today spreading back as far as the enormous Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans is almost entirely surrounded by water, which since its earliest days has both isolated it from the interior and connected it to the outside world. By the time the Americans bought it, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New Orleans was a cosmopolitan city whose ethnically diverse population had mingled to create a distinctive Creole culture. In the nineteenth century its importance as a port made the city the haunt of smugglers, gamblers, prostitutes and pirates, who gave it the decadent "sin city" notoriety that it still has today. Ever since then more and more visitors, among them an inordinate number of artists, writers and sundry bohemians, have poured in to see what the fuss was about; many found themselves staying, unable to shake the place out of their system.

Given its allure New Orleans is a surprisingly small town, with its million or so residents spread across a patchwork of neighborhoods. Its compact size makes it a dream to visit; simple to get around and easy to get to know, it’s one of the best places in the United States to kick back and unwind for a few days. Above all, New Orleans is less a city of major sights than of sensual pleasures. With its subtropical climate, Latin-influenced architecture and black majority population, its voodoo worshippers and its long-held carnival traditions, it is often called the northernmost Caribbean city. The pace of life is slow here, while the sybaritic vices are relished – no more so than during the many festivals, especially, of course, the world-famous carnival of Mardi Gras, when real life is put on hold as businessmen and bus-boys alike are swept along by an increasingly frenzied season of parties, street parades and masquerade balls. Whatever time of year you come, you’ll slip easily into the indolent way of life, rejecting an itinerary of museum-hopping in favor of a stroll around the French Quarter, where the vibrant street life and decaying buildings provide endless feasts for the eye; a leisurely steamboat cruise on the Mississippi; or simply a long cool drink in a hidden courtyard. Perhaps the most taxing thing you’ll do is head out on the slow-moving old streetcar to the residential Garden District, where dark green shrubs weighed down by fat magnolia blossoms squat in the shadow of centuries-old live oaks tangled with ragged gray streamers of Spanish moss.

Though many of the city’s most lingering pleasures come after dark, when the streets fill with people eating in the hundreds of superb restaurants, drinking at its many characterful bars and enjoying a live-music scene to rival any in the world, there’s a whole lot more to New Orleans – the "Big Easy", the "city that care forgot" – than its fame as a nonstop party town. Ravaged by the Civil War and since then trailing in the wake of its more dynamic Southern rivals, today New Orleans depends heavily upon the cash brought by the millions of tourists seduced by the allure of authentic jazz, fine food and free-flowing alcohol. While having enormous amounts of fun here, you’re always liable to be pulled up short by the divisions between rich and poor (and, more explicitly, between white and black). Just footsteps away from the feted French Quarter and Garden District – themselves touched by decrepitude and decay – lie woefully neglected housing projects and poverty-scarred neighborhoods.

Perversely, New Orleans’ second-league status, in commercial terms, has protected it from the modernization that has ripped out the old hearts of wealthier cities, and allowed it to hold on to its distinctive character. And this sense of historic continuity is not limited to architecture. From the devout celebration of Catholic saints’ days and the offerings left at voodoo shrines, to the local street parades, in which umbrella-twirling dancers and blasting brass bands lead crowds of thousands through poor black neighborhoods just as they have done for several centuries, much of the city’s vitality and its sheer panache comes from a heartfelt belief that what has gone before is worth keeping. The melange of cultures and races that built New Orleans still gives it its heart: not "easy", exactly, but quite unlike anywhere else in the States – or in the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318244 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Samantha Cook first visited New Orleans in 1990, and liked it so much, she has returned every year since. She has been involved with Rough Guides for ten years, starting out as an author on the Rough Guide to the USA and contributing to many other titles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHEN TO VISIT

New Orleans has a subtropical climate, with warm temperatures, high humidity and heavy rainfall. Thanks to its busy convention calendar, swarming weekend tourist traffic and a seemingly endless stream of festivals, the city stays pretty full year-round, but the peak tourist seasons are Mardi Gras – which starts on Twelfth Night and builds up in intensity until Mardi Gras itself, the day before Ash Wednesday – and Jazz Fest, which spreads across a fortnight at the end of April and the start of May. Both, along with the increasingly popular French Quarter festival, occur in spring, which is a pleasant, sunny time to visit. However, the humidity is already building up by then, and Jazz Fest especially can be plagued by heavy rain.

The torpid months between May and September, when the blistering heat and intense humidity prove debilitating in the extreme, count as off-season; prices may be lower and crowds thinner at this time, but for good reason. From May to November the city is at risk from the hurricanes that sweep through the Gulf of Mexico. Even if it doesn’t get a direct hit, New Orleans can be seriously affected by a tropical storm landing anywhere along the coast.

Climate-wise, fall is one of the best times to visit: October especially tends to be sunny, warm and relatively dry, though the nights can be chilly. Even in winter the days don’t usually get too cold; the nights, however, are another matter, cursed by the bone-bitingly damp air that creeps in from the river.

Plagued by heavy pollination, humidity and pollution, New Orleans is a year-round nightmare for allergy sufferers, and can bring on miserable symptoms even for those who have never experienced them before. Bring your own medication, or stock up when you arrive.

Customer Reviews

Excellent guide book for New Orleans
If I had to bring just one guidebook on a visit to New Orleans this would be the one I would choose (out of the ones I have read).

The guidebook included several helpful maps and some nice historical/background detail.

It has a great section about visiting plantations along River Road to the west of the city. We rented a car and took a daytrip out along the River Road and found the info that was provided to be accurate and insightful.

The book's introduction to the Garden District, how to get there, what to see, etc. was excellent.

We followed several of the book's restaurant recommendations and were quite pleased - the book recommended both Mother's Cafe and The Acme Oyster House, both of which were gems.

Lots of little surprises, very well written
The more I read this book the more I like it. There are parts of this book that stood out in my head because they practically took me back to New Orleans. I have a great deal of respect for Samantha Cook, she is a great writer!

I was very glad to see the section listing books and, in particular, movies set in or about New Orleans. Whenever I am going through New Orleans withdrawl I check this guide for movies I haven't seen.

Besides the content, which on a whole is very useful and right up there with the best guide books, I like it's small size. It is easy to carry around with you.

Indispensible!
This little guide is chock full of expert advice that makes your stay in this fun but grimy city much more enjoyable. Information about the one reliable cab company (and there are a lot of cab companies there), the St Charles streetcar line, and the best restaurants will keep you from looking like so many other tourists that we encountered--lost and frustrated. The writing is realistic, a little opinionated, but never snotty or incorrect. For instance, it has a small commentary on crime, but doesn't dwell on it, like other guides do. The bottom line is: use this guide and your own common sense, and you'll have a great time!