Jackson Square is the gleaming center of New Orleans and the architectural gems that make it glow! The central diamond in this three-building setting is Saint Louis Cathedral, named for Louis the 9th, the sainted monarch of France. A church has stood here since 1718, the year of the city’s French colonial founding. Though many rich and famous locals—like native musician Harry Connick Jr.—have worshiped here, the cathedral has long been a place to welcome everyone, even enslaved people and enslavers.

Peek into the windows on Royal Street, and you’ll find treasures untold, including wares once owned by royalty and celebrities. One of the world’s most famous “antique rows,” this is also one of the oldest streets in New Orleans. After antiquing, you’ll probably be hungry. Don’t worry. You’re in the perfect place. Royal Street is home to several historic restaurants.

As you stroll the French Quarter, accompanied by the ever-present hum of music, it may be hard to believe that New Orleans jazz was almost lost! But a tune-loving local gave it a place to survive and thrive: this venerable building known as Preservation Hall.

This iconic old Bourbon Street tavern, the Old Absinthe House, looks much the same today as it did the night General Andrew Jackson knocked on the door more than 200 years ago. He was here to enlist a band of pirates to fight with him against the British in the War of 1812.

If you step inside this one-of-a-kind museum, step carefully. You may be greeted by an albino python assisting his master, a voodoo priest, with the ticket sales. But don't be alarmed. Snakes are just one of the sacred objects in the New Orleans Voodoo Museum, an intriguing showcase of the city’s unique religion.

The lights inside this famous fortress, the Old Ursuline Convent, were blazing ’til dawn on the night of January 7, 1815. It was the eve of the Battle of New Orleans, and the Ursuline sisters were praying for victory. After it came, the nuns nursed the ragtag soldiers back to health behind these convent walls, and General Jackson visited to thank the sisters for their prayers through that nail-biter of a night.

If you're looking for a new bag, some sunglasses, a preserved alligator head or the best crawfish in town, this is the place for you! The unmistakable stone entry welcomes you to the French Market, the bustling, hustling heart of the New Orleans waterfront. The city’s answer to European open-air markets, it has a pedigree to match. A market has operated here on the Crescent City riverfront since 1791, making it the oldest of its kind in the United States.

Since 1862, the distinctive smell of this cafe's brew has been a signature element in the unique scent of the French Quarter, and the place has served millions of plates of beignets: fluffy, square French donuts doused with a significant dose of confectioners' sugar that covers customers’ clothes, tables and shoes like sweet snow.

There’d be no New Orleans without “Ol’ Man River”: the mighty Mississippi! It’s the river’s distinctive curve that earned this town the nickname “The Crescent City.” The river brought into port traders and settlers from every corner of the globe. Together they created the rich cultural “gumbo” that is the city’s unique ethnic and cultural heritage, flavored by French, Spanish, Italian, Irish, Afro-Caribbean, German, Native American and more.