New Orleans, Louisiana

"The civil rights dining room. Leah Chase's legacy in every bowl of gumbo."

Dooky Chase's has been a New Orleans institution since 1941 and a gathering point for the civil rights movement — Dr. King, James Baldwin, Thurgood Marshall all ate at this table. Leah Chase's Creole cooking defined Louisiana cuisine for 80 years. The Thursday fried chicken special is transcendent.

"New Orleans' oyster bar since 1919. Ice-cold oysters on the half shell."

A white-tile oyster bar on Magazine Street that has served Oysters Casamento and oyster stew since 1919. The tile interior is a National Historic Landmark in itself. The oysters are Gulf oysters at peak — briny and cold. Cash only, and closed in summer when oysters spawn.

"Beignets and cafe au lait at the river. The most New Orleans thing possible."

An open-air cafe on the Mississippi riverfront in the French Quarter serving beignets (fried dough squares buried in powdered sugar) and chicory-laced cafe au lait since 1862. Yes, it's touristy. Go anyway — it's good and the setting is irreplaceable. Go at 2am when the atmosphere is particularly New Orleans.

"A neighborhood market in the St. Roch cemetery neighborhood. Real New Orleans."

The historic St. Roch Market was restored after Katrina and again after 2021's Hurricane Ida, anchoring a neighborhood of late-19th-century Creole shotgun houses and the extraordinary St. Roch Cemetery — a walled city of the dead with a chapel whose interior walls are covered in ex-votos (crutches, braces, and medical devices left by the healed).

"Tremé — the oldest Black neighborhood in America. This museum tells it."

In the Tremé neighborhood (the oldest African American urban community in the US), this museum documents the history of New Orleans' Black community from the Congo Square slave market through the jazz era, civil rights movement, and post-Katrina recovery. The surrounding Tremé blocks are themselves a living museum.

"Above-ground tombs in walled cities. The most extraordinary cemeteries in America."

New Orleans buries its dead above ground — the water table makes below-ground burial impossible. The St. Louis Cemeteries (1, 2, and 3) are walled cities of whitewashed tombs, some dating to the 1700s. Marie Laveau's tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 requires a guided tour. Genuinely extraordinary architecture of death.

"A historic bayou through the city. Peaceful paddling between oak canopies."

Bayou St. John is a 2-mile urban waterway running from City Park to Pontchartrain Drive — the original waterway used by Indigenous people to connect the Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain. Kayak launches available at the bayouside parks. Great blue herons, egrets, and turtles in an urban wilderness setting.

"One of the largest urban parks in the US. 1,300 acres of live oaks."

A 1,300-acre park in the heart of the city with ancient live oak trees, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Sculpture Garden, the Botanical Garden, miniature train, and the legendary Couturie Forest. The Spanish moss-draped oaks are some of the oldest in the world.

"The most pristine river swamp in Louisiana. Alligators and cypress knees."

Accessible by boat tour from Slidell (45 minutes east), Honey Island Swamp is one of the least altered river swamp ecosystems in the country — old-growth cypress, wild boar, river otters, and a resident alligator population. The boat tours are genuine ecological experiences, not theme park performances.

"Where New Orleans actually plays jazz. Not Bourbon Street."

Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny has the most authentic live music scene in New Orleans — three blocks of music clubs (the Spotted Cat, the Maple Leaf, the Blue Nile) where real New Orleans musicians play real jazz, brass band, zydeco, and R&B. Go any night after 10pm. Never crowded the way Bourbon Street is.

"Consistently ranked the best museum in America. It deserves it."

The comprehensive museum of the American WWII experience — from Pearl Harbor through the surrender on the USS Missouri. Built on Tom Hanks' initiative and continuously expanding, it has interactive exhibits, a 4D film with narration by Tom Hanks, and recently opened a vast Road to Berlin exhibit. Military gets discounted admission.

"Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Amazon under one roof. Excellent."

A world-class aquarium on the Mississippi riverfront focused on the Americas' aquatic ecosystems — a Gulf of Mexico touch tank, Caribbean reef, Amazon rainforest exhibit, and a white alligator that is the city's unofficial mascot. Military discount available.

"A classic American zoo in the live oaks of Uptown."

A 58-acre zoo in Audubon Park under the live oak canopy, with Louisiana swamp exhibit (native alligators, nutria, swamp birds), white tigers, and a Louisiana Cajun experience. Manageable size for families. Military discount available.