New Orleans stands out as a culinary and cultural gem of the South and for this reason many first-time visitors will be interested to learn upon arrival that there is more to this city than the sprawling bars lining its famed Bourbon Street and distinct architectural style.
A simple venture to even parallel roads and avenues in the French Quarter will be enough to encounter its journey to reconcile so much of its complex past to its present. There will be shops selling voodoo dolls, vampire decor, oddities and curiosities among the many other gallery storefronts. Another intriguing find is the year-round ghost tours to its many haunted buildings such as the LaLaurie mansion and passing of New Orleans’s cemeteries featuring prominent figures including a Voodoo Queen. The Historic Voodoo Museum is of course a stop not to be missed in this exploration. Even if you don’t readily gravitate towards the macabre, but you want to just lightly dabble in some thrills, there are plenty of swamp tours offering a rush of suspense where one can see alligators in the wild, eating some chicken or the marshmallows the boat captain uses to draw them out.
During spooky season, some of New Orleans’s locals put on a hearty display of the Halloween spirit by decorating their historic houses intricately. You can go on a walking tour to witness these Spanish moss-covered homes after eating brunch at a restaurant on the streetcar-lined Canal Street or on your way between eating the fresh shucked oysters at Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House and a beignet at Café du Monde. And if all this walking has got you hankering for more activities before inevitably conjuring the spirit of the green fairy at the Old Absinthe bar on Bourbon Street, you can hop on a steamboat tour on the Mississippi River for dinner.
One thing is for sure that whenever you visit the city, there are plenty of activities to do whether you choose a spirited or spirit-filled experience and you just may run into the vampire community of New Orleans on your way, bringing your adventure full-circle.
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**This maybe not for the faint of heart, there are plantation tours which explore the sordid, chilling history of slavery to attempt to apologize and honor those caught in its horror. The reality of its legacy is still something that the predominantly Black population of New Orleans has to grapple with on the daily basis.
