New Orleans Highlights

This Tour Comes From...

An image of the book: Crossing America: National Geographic's Guide to the Interstate

Crossing America: National Geographic's Guide to the Interstates

For more National Geographic travel guides—from Europe to Antarctica and everywhere in between—visit National Geographic Books >>

One of the country’s oldest churches, the triple-spired 1794 St. Louis Cathedral (+1 504 525 9585), on Jackson Square, lords over the French Quarter. Flanking the cathedral are three of the four public museums of the Louisiana State Museum (+1 504 568 6968. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). Artifacts at the Cabildo, the statehouse where the transfer papers for the Louisiana Purchase were signed in 1803, include Napoleon’s death mask and a slave collar and block. The Presbytère, built as the seat for the Bishop of Louisiana in 1797, now has displays on state culture and history and the Louisiana Portrait Gallery. And the 1850 House (523 St. Ann St.) is the re-creation of a middle-class antebellum family residence. CONTINUED

(Continued From Top)

Three steeples rise from St. Louis Cathedral, a New Orleans landmark.

Photograph © Robert Holmes/Corbis

A few blocks away, the state museum’s popular Old U. S. Mint (400 Esplanade Ave.) contains mint artifacts, an entertaining exhibit on Mardi Gras, and a jazz display that includes Louis Armstrong’s first horn.
Two small, quirky museums worth visiting are the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum (514 Rue Chartres. +1 504 565 8027. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), with mean-looking surgical instruments from the Civil War and an aquarium of live leeches; and the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (724 Rue Dumaine. +1 504 522 5223. Adm. fee), which traces voodoo’s roots to Africa.

The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum offers tours and private consultations.

Photograph © Robert Holmes/Corbis

On the river is the Aquarium of the Americas (One Canal St. +1 504 565 3006. Adm. fee), with albino alligators and black-footed penguins. The World Trade Center (2 Canal St. +1 504 581 4888. Adm. fee) offers an excellent view from its 31st floor, and the La. Children’s Museum (420 Julia St. +1 504 523 1357. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) amuses the under-12 set.
In the 1,500-acre [607-hectare] City Park, the handsome New Orleans Museum of Art (1 Collins Diboll Cir. +1 504 488 2631. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) has fine collections of Fabergé and pre-Columbian objects among its displays.