With a wealth of cultural history and unparalleled entertainment, New Orleans, Louisiana is a thriving, flourishing city. Before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New Orleans was inhabited by the French, given to the Spanish, and eventually ceded back to France again. After the Haitian Revolution thousands of freed people from Central Africa and Haiti rushed to New Orleans, bringing with them a blend of customs that remain essential to the city’s sizzling flavor. Meanwhile the Cajuns were expelled from Canada and they too found solace in New Orleans arms, adding lively music and their uniquely famed cuisine to the mix. Today New Orleans rests in the American South, but its European roots, Caribbean influences, and Cajun zest are boldly represented in the local architecture, cuisine, and one-of-a-kind entertainment. Based along the Mississippi River, the Port of New Orleans booms with cotton and tobacco river trade, and dominates the Caribbean as the trade stop for island crops like sugar cane, rum, and fruit. The plethora of settlers and visitors has produced an eclectic architectural style; St. Charles Avenue is famous for its Antebellum homes and mansions reminiscent of the Greek Revival, Colonial, and Victorian styles. Great European-style Catholic cemeteries are features of the distinguishing architecture as well. New Orleans is the melting pot of musical life, the birthplace of jazz and Zydeco rhythm, and home to many of the most famed musicians, from Louis Armstrong to Lenny Kravitz. Jazz festivals like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Carnival season, known for its final day of Mardi Gras, attract people from all over the world for their exceptional music, food, arts, and crafts. The legendary cuisine is a combination of local ingredients and traditions that produce favorites like Po’boy, jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice. With over 1,500 restaurants, and celebrity class chefs, the city boasts renowned restaurants like Galatoire’s and Emeril’s along with local hotspots like Ralph’s on the Park, Acme Oyster House, and the Gumbo Shop. Once the sun sets in Downtown New Orleans, the flourishing casino scene booms with venues like Harrah’s New Orleans Casino and the riverboat Treasure Chest Casino. With museums like the Contemporary Arts Center and New Orleans Museum of Art and fun-filled venues like Audubon Zoo and Aquarium of the Americas, the family will not be disappointed. Sports fans revel in the spectrum of events, including NFL’s New Orleans Saints and NBA’s New Orleans Hornets. The wetlands of the Mississippi River furnish ecosystems vibrant with commercial fishing, birding, and beautiful parks. Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy the annual fishing competition, Tarpon Rodeo, with speckled trout and redfish. In 2005, the floods and failed levees of Hurricane Katrina caused the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. The vibrant and colorful city held strong to its rich roots, however, and today it ushers in the good ol’ New Orleans Creole and Cajun spirit once again.

It’s sometimes said that there is no state quite like Louisiana. Truth is, there is no state like Louisiana, period. Where else are so many remnants of French Rule still in effect in America? Where else can you find the original Mardi Gras? And where else can you party all night, any day of the week, watch incredible live jazz shows, get your beer and wine in a to-go cup, and drink it on the street while en route to your next destination? Any American should be able to answer these questions without help. It’s the one and only French Quarter in historic New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans, embattled by hurricane Katrina, but infused with a spirit to endure, is still one of the hottest spots in the U.S. for unique culture, unique atmosphere, and most notably, unique and delicious cuisine. Even outside the city, and indeed throughout the state, can you find people who’ve called Louisiana home for generations, so much so that the dialect and accent are unmistakable with those from any where else in America. And with hundreds of miles of coastline along the aqua blue Gulf of Mexico, plenty of plantations, prodigious pine forests, and serious swamplands, bogs, and bayous where you’ll find an environment like no other on the planet, its an understatement to point out this state’s diversity. So much so, that it’s divided into five distinct regions, Greater New Orleans, Plantation land, Cajun Country, Crossroads, and Sportsman’s Paradise. So whether you’re fishing for catfish, eating jambalaya, drinking on Bourbon Street, frog-gigging in the bayou, or simply relaxing at a bed and breakfast surrounded by Southern charm, you’ll know one thing for sure, you couldn’t be anywhere else on the planet but Louisiana.

New Orleans, Mardi Gras, French Quarter, Bourbon Street, Katrina, Gulf of Mexico, cajun, jazz, catfish, jambalaya

Creole, Saint Louis Cemetery, University of New Orleans, Louisiana Purchase of 1803, France, Spain, Haitian Revolution, Central Africa, Cajun, Mississippi River, Port of New Orleans, Caribbean, St. Charle’s Avenue, Antebellum, Greek Revival, Colonial architecture, Victorian architecture, European cemetaries, jazz, Zydeco, Louis Armstrong, Lenny Kravitz, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Carnival Season, Mardi Gras, Po’boy, jambalaya, gumbo, Galatoire’s, Emeril’s, Ralph’s on the Park, Acme Oyster House, Gumbo Shop, Downtown New Orleans, Harrah’s New Orleans Casino, Treasure Chest Casino, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans Museum of Art, Audubon Zoo, Aquarium of the Americas, New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Hornets, Tarpon Rodeo, speckled trout, redfish, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita

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