New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans’ long and vibrant history, combined with a lively set of present-day attractions, has put it at the top of many a traveler’s bucket list. Its colonial past has left a legacy of elegant decay, including old cemeteries with aboveground tombs in the style of Parisian graveyards and other structures left over from France and Spain’s imperialistic ventures in the New World.

In the French Quarter, visitors can view what is left of the original New Orleans, once the capital of French Louisiana. Nowadays, it is a center of the culture and nightlife of the city.

New Orleans is also home to the National World War ll Museum, which began as a D-Day museum: New Orleans was the base of Higgins Industries, the designer and manufacturer of the Higgins boats used to land Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. But the Museum’s mission has expanded to telling the story of World War ll with an emphasis on the American experience.

For those wishing to see New Orleans without becoming foot-sore, the Natchez combines old-fashioned steam power with music from a calliope. The steamboat makes its way through New Orleans twice a day.

Worth Checking Out

• French Quarter
• National WWll Museum
• SS Natchez
• Audubon Nature Institute