The Alternative Guide to New Orleans Map

This historic French Quarter hotel offers the perfect stay during your trip to New Orleans. The iconic building has a rich history and has kept much of its grand design, which originates from its previous life as high-society ballroom. Its period detail, twinkling chandeliers, glistening marble floors and arched windows, provide a timeless setting which can be enjoyed by all. The elegant design continues throughout the guest rooms and suites, with some overlooking the quaint French Quarter courtyard and others neighbouring the famous Bourbon Street itself. We opted for the spacious Deluxe King room which backed on to the inner courtyard, but you can also book an identical room with a private balcony offering a birds-eye view of the vibrant streets below. The stunning courtyard also features a heated saltwater pool where you can relax on the comfortable sun loungers whilst making the most of the hotel bar’s signature cocktails. To enhance Bourbon Orleans’ excellent rating further, it’s situated in a prime location, right in the heart of the French Quarter. Spanning an entire block just North of the renowned St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square, everything is within walking distance from here - I mean you can almost smell the beignets from the nearby Café Du Monde! If you are thinking of booking a stay please consider supporting the guide and using my affiliate link.

For any true crime fans, those fascinated by the macabre and for the more curious travellers amongst you, a visit to the world-famous Museum of Death must be included on your New Orleans itinerary. Interestingly the museum was born out of a hobby, in which the founders J.D Healy and Catherine Shultz would write to serial killers in prison and exhibit the artwork and letters they received back in the post. The first museum opened in San Diego in 1995 and was made famous when the owners attempted to recreate the Heaven’s Gate Cult suicides scene by purchasing as many items as possible from the investigation. This received a huge amount of interest from the press but also unfortunately resulted in their eviction from the property and a decision was made to the move the museum to Hollywood Boulevard in LA. In 2014 Healy and Shultz launched the New Orleans branch called Musée de Mort Orleans with their goal being “to make people happy to be alive”. Unfortunately, no photographs or video are allowed inside the museum so I can’t give you a sneak peek, but be prepared for extensive exhibits including shrunken heads, paintings by serial killers, skeletons, crime scene photos, body bags, embalming instruments, autopsy videos, taxidermy and much more! The amount of items within the collection is extremely impressive and you could easily spend around an hour here perusing the wide variety of artifacts in detail. Please note, there are no age restrictions to enter, but consideration and caution when visiting with children is urged. Within this wall-to-wall death-filled curiosity cabinet, some of the more well know oddities to look out for include one of Dr. Kevorkian’s suicide devices - “The Thanatron”, paintings by John Wayne Gacy plus a selection of Charles Manson’s family photographs and tucked away at the back the ‘Theatre of Death’. Admission to the museum cost around $17 when I visited and it has a terrific gift shop to check out filled with dark souvenirs, t-shirts and pieces of art!

Known as the ‘City of the Dead’, due to its distinct mausoleums resembling small eerie dwellings, St. Louis Cemetery No.1 is home to some of the city’s most notable deceased residents. The necropolis dates back to the late 1700’s and includes more than 600 crumbling tombs within its small one block perimeter. The location of the site was originally chosen due to the swampland being low in value, but this led to many problems when carrying out burials below ground. Due to the city mostly sitting 15 feet below sea level, if you dig a few feet down you will hit water causing a casket to pretty much float. It is said that early settlers even tried placing stones on top of coffins to try to keep them underground but as soon as a storm hit or if the area flooded, they would find caskets popping up right out of the ground! The chaotic labyrinth like layout, with row upon row of stone vaults, make it like no other cemetery I have visited before. It is thought that initial burials may have taken a traditional form and been below ground or in quasi-above ground tombs, but each grave could only hold one burial, so as pressure on the cemetery grew, more above ground tombs were erected on top of the original burial chambers. As the temperatures in these vaults can reach over 150 degrees, they generate a natural cremation process, so when they were opened the remaining bones could be pushed to the back with a long pole, making space for the newly deceased to be interred. The phrase ‘wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole’ has since been cited as originating from this rather gruesome process. In 1878 thousands of people died of yellow fever and burials had to be performed extremely quickly to avoid prolonged contact with the infected body. Because of this, cases were reported of people being buried alive, even with accounts of screams coming from the graves! To combat this, it became common practice to tie a string to the person’s index finger which connected to a bell so if they did wake up entombed, they could ring for help - some say that’s how the well-known expression ‘saved by the bell’ came to be. At the dead of night workers were assigned to patrol the cemetery listening for the ringing of bells and screams coming from inside the tombs, which is also thought to be how the term ‘graveyard shift’ originated. When visiting St. Louis Cemetery No.1, the tomb which interested me the most was that of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. Details are sketchy but during the 19th century legend goes that Laveau was the most famous and powerful voodoo practitioner in the city. Many believe her magic still radiates from the grave and have marked X’s over her mausoleum in the hope that she will grant their wishes. (Please note a hefty fine is now in place for any visitors who attempt to write on the grave, so I would not recommend this). Due to issues with vandalism, you can now only visit this fascinating cemetery by booking an organised tour via their website.

If you are looking to step off the beaten track and see some of the real Louisiana, then I would highly recommend booking one of the remarkable swamp tours to discover the iconic Bayou, stunning scenery, rare wildlife and of course the stars of the show – the gators! From reading many reviews online I opted for the Airboat Adventures tour, which is located approximately 45 minutes from the French Quarter of New Orleans. They are known to offer some of the most impressive swamp tours in this area, getting you up close and personal with the true Louisiana natives. They offer a wide variety of tours on different crafts including pontoon boats, as well as large and small airboats. We opted for the premium small airboat, which seats up to 6 passengers, as the smaller boats allow you to advance deeper into the Bayou to discover even more of the wildlife that lives there. When you book online you can select to proceed to the departure point without transportation, or opt to include it. If you don’t have a hire car and are staying in the French Quarter, then I’d recommend selecting the pick-up and drop-off option, which includes round trip transportation from downtown New Orleans. Another tip when boarding the boat, is to try and grab the front seats to acquire an incredible view of the Bayou without anyone in front, making for some amazing photos and video. Be warned the boat can reach pretty high speeds so don’t wear anything which could fly off easily. It’s also recommended to wear the ear protectors due to the noise of the aircraft fan that propels the boat and I’d also make sure you are wearing sunscreen as there is zero shade during the 1 hour 45-minute tour. All the tour guides love sharing their knowledge of the local area known as ‘Cypress Swamp’ (after the Bald Cypress, which is the state tree of Louisiana) as they take you to the best parts of the narrow creeks to see the incredible variety of wildlife. During our tour we managed to see turtles, egrets, bald eagles, giant spiders and numerous alligators! Even without the fauna, meandering down the shallow marches lined with mossy cypress trees is a wonderful experience in itself. As soon as you see the alligators, they tend to swim right up to the boat. Our guide had a stash of marshmallows which he enjoyed feeding them, with one of the ginormous gators around 12ft even getting it’s front two feet up on to the side of the boat. It total, we managed to see well over 10 alligators during the tour and were literally within inches of them, creating some fantastic photo opportunities! It’s certainly a high thrill experience and one of the most memorable activities we booked whilst visiting New Orleans.

Spooky walking tours led by master storytellers. French Quarter Phantoms offer various tours including the: Ghost & Vampire Tour, Saints & Sinners Tour, French Quarter History & Voodoo Tour. We opted for the Ghost & Vampire Tour which lasted around one hour and forty-five minutes in which we visited some of the most haunted locations across the French Quarter. We had a fantastic tour guide and I would certainly recommend this as a chilling evening activity.