Welcome to New Orleans!
Nightlife and Party Guide to the Big Easy

The Carosel bar at the Hotel Monteleone is one of many fun places in New Orleans.

New Orleans is a city that has gotten it right.

While most other places struggle to deal with excessive partying, New Orleans opens its doors and welcomes in the crowd. It is a perfect party host, a place so inviting that it adds to the existing frenzy with huge events such as Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and New Year's Eve.

It's called The Big Easy because the parties are big and they are easy to find. This is a town built for fun where people walk casually down the streets with a large cocktail in hand and bars have no set closing time. And it's been rebuilt – Hurricane Katrina hit in September of 2005 but today the city is back to it's musicial, historical and have-fun heritage.

It's is laid-back, late-night, non-stop entertainment.

The bars on Bourbon Street make people smile and laugh.

Mardi Gras is when the Big Easy's party really gets big.

New Orleans is part Key West, part Las Vegas, part Spring Break, part Greek Islands. But with a rich cultural heritage, it is also distinctly New Orleans.

At some point, it seems as if the entire world has passed through what the locals call "Nawlens." Truman Capote is from New Orleans, Tennessee Williams and Mark Twain spent considerable time here, Brad Pitt and Angeline Joline have taken up residence in the Franch Quarter and tributes to Jean Lafitte are everywhere.

Lafitte was local hero/pirate who joined Andrew Jackson to fend off the British invasion at the end of the War of 1812. He had two wives and six mistresses when he died. "That makes him a hero to me," said singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who started his legendary music career on Bourbon Street.

For us, it represents what makes this city and it's people so uniquely New Orleans.

So we are proud to present our complete city guide to New Orleans. Click the links at left for reviews of Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, JazzFest, locals bars, doing a pub crawl using the St. Charles Street car, and more.