New Orleans is one of the most distinctive cities in America; where elegant French Quarter architecture, incredible jazz on every corner, and Cajun cooking that ruins you for everywhere else come together in a place you have to experience to understand.
Highlights of your Holidays to New Orleans
The French Quarter - Thirteen blocks of wrought-iron balconies, Spanish colonial courtyards and Bourbon Street chaos. Walkable, incredibly photogenic and one of the most memorable parts of the city.
Live jazz on Frenchmen Street - The birthplace of jazz still does it better than anywhere. Frenchmen Street (the locals' strip, not Bourbon) has six or seven venues on one block with live music every single night.
Creole and Cajun food - Gumbo, jambalaya, po'boys, beignets, charbroiled oysters and crawfish boils. Two distinct food traditions from southern Louisiana, plus fine dining at Commander's Palace and a street-food scene that never stops.
Mardi Gras and Carnival - The pre-Lent carnival runs from Twelfth Night (6 January) to Fat Tuesday (9 February in 2027). Even outside that window, the costume shops, krewe traditions and party energy are woven into the city year-round.
The Mississippi River - Steamboat Natchez cruises, riverfront walks, and a working port that shaped American history. The city wouldn't exist without the river, and the river wouldn't be the same without the city.
Above-ground cemeteries - New Orleans sits below sea level, so burials happen in elaborate above-ground marble tombs. St Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the most famous (guided tours required), with vaults dating to the 1780s.
💡 Good to Know - New Orleans Holidays 2026 / 2027
☀️ Weather - Hot and properly humid from May to September (28 to 32°C), mild and pleasant the rest of the year (13 to 22°C). Hurricane season runs June to November with peak risk in August and September. March and October are the standout months for comfortable city-break weather.
💶 Money - A casual restaurant meal runs £12 to £20 / €14 to €23 a head, a craft cocktail on Bourbon Street is around £7 to £10 / €8 to €12. Tipping is mandatory at 18 to 22 % in restaurants.
🎺 Fun fact - New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz. Louis Armstrong learnt to play in the brass bands of Storyville before he was 20, and the genre's origin traces back to Congo Square (now Louis Armstrong Park) where enslaved Africans gathered on Sundays from the 1700s and developed the rhythms that became jazz a century later.
🏨 New Orleans Hotels
See all New Orleans hotels or browse our top picks below...
👨👩👧👦 New Orleans hotels for families
Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans Downtown (French Quarter Area). Two blocks from the French Quarter with a free hot breakfast, fitness centre, and family-friendly rooms. Big plus for parents: the rate covers breakfast, which keeps morning logistics simple in a city where eating out costs add up fast.
Crowne Plaza New Orleans French Quarter. On Canal Street with an outdoor pool, gym and on-site casino. Walking distance to Bourbon Street nightlife but far enough out that the kids can sleep. The streetcar stops nearby for easy days out to City Park or Audubon Zoo.
Wyndham New Orleans - French Quarter. Reliable mid-range spot just 300 metres from the city centre, with Mr. Ed's Southern Creole Kitchen on site for casual family meals. Public transport on the doorstep.
❤️ New Orleans hotels for couples
The Royal Sonesta New Orleans. The historic landmark on Bourbon Street itself, with a French Quarter courtyard, indoor and outdoor pools, and the legendary Desire Oyster Bar attached. Resort fee of around £23 per room per night charged at check-in, on top of your booking.
Hotel St. Marie French Quarter Hotel. Period-decor rooms with French Quarter charm, a tropical courtyard pool, and the on-site Vacherie Restaurant for Cajun cooking and craft cocktails. Walkable to Bourbon Street and Jackson Square. The romantic-base French Quarter pick.
French Market Inn. Antique-styled rooms with original 19th-century exposed brick walls on Decatur Street, six blocks from Jackson Square. Some rooms have balconies with Mississippi River views. Properly atmospheric for couples.
✨ Best luxury hotels in New Orleans
Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans. Spacious modern luxury rooms with 12-foot ceilings and sleek interiors, in the middle of the French Quarter. Red Fish Grill on the lobby level for top-tier seafood, walking distance to Jackson Square and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Canopy by Hilton New Orleans Downtown. Boutique-style stay with on-site Creole-Cantonese restaurant, complimentary Canopy bikes, and ten minutes' walk to Bourbon Street. Resort fee of 1.75% of total stay charged at check-in, on top of your booking.
🎉 New Orleans hotels for groups
Wyndham New Orleans - French Quarter. Spread across 20 floors with Mr. Ed's Southern Creole Kitchen on site, indoor pool and gym, and Bourbon Street's nightlife 50 metres from the door. Solid central group base.
The Royal Sonesta New Orleans. Big enough to host a full mate's-trip across multiple rooms, with two pools, a nightclub on site, and the courtyard for late-night gatherings. Resort fee charged separately at the property.
Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans. Roomy stylish rooms suit groups who want quality alongside the central location. Lobby restaurant works for joint dinners, the French Quarter is on the doorstep.
💰 Best value hotels in New Orleans
La Quinta Inn & Suites New Orleans Downtown. On the edge of the French Quarter and within easy walking distance of Bourbon Street, with an outdoor pool, gym, and 24-hour reception. Resort fee of around £14 per room per night charged at check-in.
Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans Downtown (French Quarter Area). Free hot breakfast included, two blocks from the Quarter, comfortable rooms at a sensible price point.
Crowne Plaza New Orleans French Quarter. Mid-range four-star on Canal Street with full amenities, decent value for what you get.
Where to Stay
New Orleans is a compact city for visitors, one of America's most walkable cities in fact, with most hotels clustered in or around the French Quarter and the neighbouring Central Business District.
💑 Couples
French Quarter is where the romance is: cobblestone streets, candlelit courtyards and live jazz drifting out of every doorway. Hotels here put you within walking distance of Jackson Square, the Mississippi riverfront and the best restaurants in the city.
👨👩👧👦 Families
Central Business District (CBD) sits just across Canal Street from the Quarter, with bigger-brand hotels that tend to have pools, gyms and family-friendly pricing. The streetcar stops along Canal Street for easy days out to City Park and Audubon Zoo.
🎉 Groups
Bourbon Street end of the French Quarter is the natural base for groups. The nightlife is on the doorstep, the hotels are used to late check-ins and early starts, and you can walk to everything that matters without worrying about taxis.
🗣️ Local Lingo
English is the language but New Orleans has its own dialect ("Yat" English) and a handful of French-creole loanwords that sound nothing like they look. Five to know:
Y'all, YAWL, You all (the universal Louisiana plural; you'll hear it constantly)
Lagniappe, LAN-yap, A little something extra (a bonus, the equivalent of "baker's dozen")
Beignet, BEN-yay, The square fried dough at Café du Monde, dusted with powdered sugar
Po'boy, POH-boy, The classic New Orleans sandwich on French bread (fried shrimp, oyster, or roast beef)
Where y'at?, WHARE-yat, How's it going? (the local greeting; the answer is also "where y'at?")
🧳 New Orleans Travel Guide 2026 / 2027
👨👩👧👦 Families
Audubon Zoo - One of America's better city zoos, with the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit (alligators, native species and a proper local twist), elephant house and wide grounds for a half-day with younger kids. About 15 minutes by streetcar from the Quarter.
City Park - Bigger than Central Park in New York, with Carousel Gardens amusement park, the New Orleans Museum of Art, Storyland for younger kids and rentable paddle boats on the lagoon. A full day's worth.
Audubon Aquarium of the Americas - Recently renovated, near the riverfront, with sharks, sea otters, a Mississippi River exhibit and an attached Insectarium. Easy half-day.
St Charles Avenue Streetcar - The oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world (since 1835). The Garden District route passes mansions, oak-lined streets and Audubon Park. About 75p / 90c a ride.
Bayou swamp tour - A 30-minute drive out to the Honey Island or Jean Lafitte swamps for a flat-bottom boat trip, alligator spotting and a glimpse of the Louisiana wilderness most visitors never see.
💑 Couples
Beignets at Café du Monde - The original Decatur Street location, open 24/7 since 1862. Beignets and café au lait in the open air, with Jackson Square across the road. Free of admission, just the cost of what you eat.
Steamboat Natchez Mississippi cruise - Two-hour daytime or evening jazz cruises on the last authentic steamboat on the river. Live jazz band, optional Creole lunch buffet. Properly old-fashioned.
Stroll the Garden District - Take the St Charles streetcar out and wander the oak-shaded streets of antebellum mansions, including Anne Rice's former home and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 (worth seeing the wall and entrance even during restoration closures).
Live jazz on Frenchmen Street - Six or seven venues on a single block (The Spotted Cat, Snug Harbor, Three Muses, d.b.a.), no cover charge at most. The locals' alternative to Bourbon Street and the better night out.
Dinner at Commander's Palace - Garden District institution since 1893, with seven James Beard awards. The Friday lunch with 25-cent martinis is legendary. Dress code applies, so plan ahead.
🎉 Groups
Bourbon Street bar crawl - The Quarter's main party strip, with frozen daiquiris, hand grenades and live cover bands every 50 metres. Pat O'Brien's for Hurricanes, Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop for an 18th-century bar setting, the Carousel Bar for a rotating cocktail lounge.
Ghost or vampire walking tour - A two-hour evening walk through the Quarter covering the city's haunted history, Marie Laveau's voodoo legacy, and the famous LaLaurie Mansion. Several operators run them, budget around £16 / €19 a head.
Cookin' Cajun cooking class - Half-day classes covering gumbo, jambalaya and étouffée, with the meal you cook as lunch afterwards. Group-friendly hands-on activity, brilliant for day two of a trip.
Charbroiled oysters at Drago's - Legendary spot in the Hilton Riverside where the cheese-and-garlic-grilled oysters are properly worth the trip. Drinks flow, group format works.
Preservation Hall jazz session - The Quarter's most famous jazz venue runs short 45-minute sets multiple times a night. Properly traditional New Orleans jazz, no booking required, queue early for the first show.
🚂 Day Trips from New Orleans
Oak Alley Plantation - The most photographed plantation in Louisiana, with a quarter-mile avenue of 300-year-old oak trees leading to the antebellum mansion. Now a museum that confronts the history of slavery alongside the architecture. Half-day round trip by car.
Bayou swamp tour - Jean Lafitte National Historical Park or Honey Island Swamp, both under an hour from the city. Flat-bottom boat through the cypress swamps with a guide pointing out alligators, herons and turtles. Easy half-day with hotel pickups available from most operators.
Whitney Plantation - The first plantation in Louisiana focused entirely on telling the story of slavery from the perspective of the enslaved. Powerful, essential, and very different in tone from the architecture-led plantation tours.
Lafayette and Cajun country - The heart of Cajun Louisiana, with traditional Cajun and zydeco music, dancing halls, and the proper rural French-Acadian culture. A long day trip but a completely different Louisiana from the city.
🌍 More US City Breaks
America - For all US holidays. Including Washington DC and more, all with direct flights from UK and Ireland airports.
New York - The city that never sleeps. Central Park, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and more world-famous landmarks per square mile than anywhere else. The classic US city break.
Las Vegas - Three to four nights of shows, casinos, neon and desert heat. The Strip is an experience in itself, and the Grand Canyon is a day trip away.
Florida - Theme parks, white-sand beaches and year-round sunshine. Orlando for Disney and Universal, Miami for Art Deco and Cuban food, the Keys for something completely different.
Miami - South Beach, Art Deco architecture, Cuban coffee in Little Havana, and the Everglades on the doorstep. A city with serious style and a food scene to match.
Popular New Orleans hotels
More New Orleans hotelsWeather in New Orleans
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New Orleans has a subtropical climate with long, hot summers and mild winters. May to September is the hot and humid stretch, with temperatures regularly hitting 30°C and above. Hurricane season runs June to November, with August and September carrying the highest risk.
October through April is the comfortable window for a city break, with daytime temperatures in the mid-teens to low twenties and much lower humidity. March brings the tail end of Carnival season and the start of festival season; October has Halloween (which New Orleans takes extremely seriously) and some of the year's best weather. December and January can be chilly by Louisiana standards (10 to 15°C) but rarely cold enough to need more than a light jacket.
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FAQs
What's the time difference between the UK and New Orleans?
What's the time difference between the UK and New Orleans?
New Orleans is on US Central Time, which is 6 hours behind UK time.
Do I need a visa to visit New Orleans?
Do I need a visa to visit New Orleans?
UK and Ireland passport holders don't need a traditional visa. You need an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation), which costs around forty dollars (paid in USD at application), is valid for two years or until your passport expires, and allows multiple entries up to 90 days each. Apply online at least 72 hours before travel.
Do I tip in New Orleans?
Do I tip in New Orleans?
Yes, and more than you might expect. New Orleans is a tipping-heavy city even by American standards.
Restaurants and bars: 18 to 22% on the bill is standard (tip in cash where possible, servers prefer it).
Taxis and rideshares: 15 to 20%, rounded up.
Live music venues with no cover: always tip the band, a few dollars per set.
Hotel porters: a dollar or two per bag.
Housekeeping: a few dollars per night left in the room.
Budget around £40 to £80 / €47 to €95 across a week for tips on top of your normal spending.
What are resort fees, and do I have to pay them?
What are resort fees, and do I have to pay them?
Most US hotels charge a mandatory resort fee at check-in on top of your booked room rate, covering things like gym access, in-room amenities and sometimes breakfast.
In New Orleans, typical resort fees run from around £11 to £19 / €13 to €22 per room per night. The fee is paid directly to the hotel and is not included in the price you book through us. Worth factoring into your budget when choosing a hotel.
When's the best time to visit New Orleans?
When's the best time to visit New Orleans?
Mardi Gras and Carnival (6 January to Fat Tuesday, 9 February in 2027) is the headline experience. Rooms book up months ahead and prices peak, but the atmosphere is unlike anything else in the world.
Jazz Fest (late April to early May, 22 April to 2 May in 2027) is the music-and-food festival that locals consider the city at its best. Mild weather, 475,000 visitors across two weekends, and a lineup that mixes global headliners with Louisiana legends.
March and October to November are the comfortable-weather months for a city break without the festival crowds. Pleasant temperatures, lower hotel prices, and the city at its most liveable.
June to September is hot, humid and carries hurricane risk peaking in August and September. Cheaper rates, but tougher conditions for walking the city.
What is the food like in New Orleans?
What is the food like in New Orleans?
New Orleans is one of the great food cities of the world, full stop. Two distinct traditions drive it: Creole cooking (the city's own French-Spanish-African fusion, think gumbo, étouffée, beignets) and Cajun cooking (the rural Louisiana tradition, think jambalaya, boudin, crawfish boils). The two overlap constantly and arguing about the line between them is a local sport.
Must-try dishes include charbroiled oysters, po'boy sandwiches on crusty French bread, red beans and rice (the Monday classic), bananas Foster (invented at Brennan's in 1951) and beignets at Café du Monde. For a standout restaurant, Commander's Palace in the Garden District has seven James Beard awards and has been running since 1893, with the legendary 25-cent martini Friday lunch still going strong.
Is New Orleans family-friendly?
Is New Orleans family-friendly?
Very much so, once you know where to aim. City Park, Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium of the Americas are all built for kids. The French Quarter is family-safe during the day (Jackson Square, the street performers, the beignets), though Bourbon Street after dark is adults-only territory. The Garden District streetcar ride and the bayou swamp tours are both brilliant with older kids. The city's biggest draw for families is how much of it is free or cheap to experience: the architecture, the street music, the parks, the riverfront.
Tell me about the nightlife in New Orleans
Tell me about the nightlife in New Orleans
Bourbon Street is the famous one: frozen daiquiris, hand grenades, cover bands and karaoke bars open until the small hours. It's touristy, loud and completely unapologetic about it. That said, the better nights out are usually one block away. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny neighbourhood is where the locals go for live jazz, with venues like The Spotted Cat, Snug Harbor and d.b.a. running nightly sets with no cover charge.
The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone is a revolving cocktail bar that's been pouring since 1949. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop on Bourbon Street claims to be the oldest bar in America (built sometime in the 1720s), and drinking by candlelight in what looks like a crumbling French colonial cottage is a properly unique experience. New Orleans has no last-call law, meaning bars can (and do) stay open around the clock.
What makes New Orleans different from other US cities?
What makes New Orleans different from other US cities?
New Orleans doesn't feel like the rest of America. The French and Spanish colonial history left a city built around courtyards, balconies and narrow streets rather than grids and skyscrapers. The food is its own cuisine (not "Southern food"), the music is its own genre (not just "American music"), and the attitude to life, death, drinking and celebration runs on a completely different clock.
Funerals here feature brass bands playing jazz through the streets. Bars never close. Strangers talk to you. The city floods, rebuilds, and throws another party. It's the kind of place that's one of a kind, that actually deserves the word "unique."