Step back into the glamour and romance of the riverboat era with a cruise on the Paddlewheeler Creole Queen boat. Tuck into a delicious dinner or simply sit back and relax with a cocktail in your hand, marveling at the views and enjoying the live jazz music. On this river cruise, experience the vibrant and lively jazz notes of the amazing Sullivan Dabney Jr. and the Muzik Jazz Band while enjoying a Creole-style dinner (if the option is selected). There will be some time to dance to the music after dinner in the gorgeous dining hall.  After dinner, enjoy a classic New Orleans cocktail on the promenade deck looking out over the Mississippi River as the city slips past. On the way back to dock where you began your tour, pass by Jackson Square and see the city lights under a starry sky.  SAMPLE DINNER MENU: • Cajun Caesar Salad • Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo • Louisiana Creole Jambalaya • Cajun Baked Chicken • Roast Beef Debris • Garlic Mashed Potatoes • Cajun Seafood Pasta • Red Beans & Rice • Corn Mac Choux • Fresh Roasted Vegetables • Paddlewheeler White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce (best in New Orleans!) • French Bread Rolls & Cornbread (Menu items are subject to change by season and availability)

Put your teamwork skills to the test and work together to find clues and solve puzzles in order to complete your mission. You'll need communication, wits, and a sense of adventure to escape from your 60-minute challenge. Choose from 4 thrilling adventures. Become a spy sent to recover a stolen painting or a falsely accused prisoner determined to break out of jail. Once you arrive, a dedicated game guide will take you to your adventure and help you as needed. After entering the room, the countdown is on. Complete the mission in 60 minutes to escape. After you and your group have emerged victorious, you’ll be conveniently located in the French Quarter, so feel free to celebrate with a bite to eat.

Experience a variety of music and gastronomy offerings at New Orleans' renowned 'Court of Two Sisters' restaurant. Enjoy the daily performances of the talented jazz band whilst relishing the delectable southern fare with this brunch buffet that includes a mimosa. Enjoy the city’s largest courtyard while having an incredible meal with this buffet that offers guaranteed seating. Tuck into classics from 9 am-11:30 am like scrambled eggs, hash browns, and andouille sausage and bacon. Make your morning right with dishes like glazed ham, grits and grillades, eggs benedict, biscuits, and a create your own omelets bar. Treat yourself to New Orleans favorites like chicken and sausage gumbo, red beans and rice, turtle soup au sherry, and Corn macque choux (a Cajun dish).  Pile your plate up with sides like garlic mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, creamed spinach. Cool off with the salad bar that is stocked with items like cold boiled shrimp, pasta salads, potato salad, mixed greens with toppings, chicken and tuna salad, fresh fruits, and assorted cheeses. Savor lunch dishes after 11:30 like carved ribeye, pasta primavera, shrimp pasta, shrimp etouffee (stew), and duck a l'orange. Finish off with something sweet like bananas foster (ice cream and stewed bananas), bread pudding with whiskey sauce, brownies, pecan pie, assorted cakes, and ice cream.

Hop aboard the helicopter at New Orleans Lakefront Airport, just 15 minutes from the French Quarter, and get ready to experience New Orleans from a new perspective. Choose between two different flight options. Choose the 15-mile option to fly over the city for approximately 12-15 minutes. Experience sites from above such as Jackson Square, the St. Louis Cathedral, the French Market, and Bourbon Street. In addition to getting a close-up aerial view of the French Quarter, you will pass by the Central Business District, Canal Street, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and fly over City Park. This park is home to the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana’s Children’s Museum, and the Bayou Oaks golf course. Next door is the Fair Grounds, home to the Louisiana Derby as well the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Choose the 30-mile option and get the opportunity to fly over both the city and the swamps for a total flight time of approximately 24 minutes. Fly over an abandoned theme park, see a NASA rocket building facility, and soar over the swamps along Lake Borgne. Flying back towards the city you will pass by the Chalmette Battlefield and follow the mighty Mississippi River back to the French Quarter and Central Business District to see all of the sights on the 15-mile tour as well. At the end of the tour the helicopter will land back at New Orleans Lakefront Airport.

Marvel at the sparkling lights and unparalleled views of New Orleans by night as you soar overhead on a private helicopter tour. Experience the tranquility of the night as you fly over the city that never sleeps.  This helicopter night tour takes off from New Orleans Lakefront Airport, only 15 minutes from the French Quarter. Choose between two different flight lengths. The 10-minute flight follows a 15-mile route that soars over the busy French Quarter. Experience the lights of Canal Street as well as the colorful Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The extended 20-minute flight features a 30-mile route where you can enjoy more time flying over the city with time spent over Uptown and the Garden District to see sights like Tulane University, Loyola University, and Saint Charles Avenue.

Learn the basics of Louisiana Cooking with cajun and creole chefs teaching New Orleans specialties such as Gumbo, Jambalaya and Pralines, seasoning them with history, trivia and tall tales. The chef will share the fascinating history of New Orleans, and how culture and cuisine are interwoven. Follow along and learn how to make mouth-watering creole and cajun dishes and dig in after the class. At the end of the class, you will receive a coupon to use in the general store and are encouraged to go home and try to make the dishes yourselves.  The general store, as well as the classroom, are both located in a renovated molasses warehouse built in the early 1800s in the heart of the French Quarter. The store has a thoughtful collection of the best locally sourced products and is the home of the famous Joe's Stuff Creole Seasoning, used and loved by local chefs and visitors alike. Program of Menus: 10 AM Class · Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday: Gumbo, Jambalaya, Bread Pudding and Pralines · Monday: Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, Pecan Pie and Pralines · Tuesday: Gumbo, Jambalaya, Bananas Foster and Pralines · Thursday: Corn & Crab Bisque, Shrimp Creole, Bananas Foster & Pralines · Friday: Crawfish Etouffee, Shrimp and Artichoke Soup, Bread Pudding, Pralines 2 PM Class · Saturday: Crawfish Etouffee, Shrimp and Artichoke Soup and Pralines · Sunday, Tuesday: Corn & Crab Bisque, Chicken Etouffee and Pralines · Monday, Thursday, Friday: Gumbo, Jambalaya and Pralines · Wednewday: Gumbo, Chicken Creole, Pralines

Visiting the Houmas House Estate is more than just a house tour. It's a fully immersive experience educating guests on the architecture, the culture, and the agriculture of this Louisiana Plantation and how the Mississippi River shaped the southern United States. Here you will get a glimpse into the life on a sugarcane plantation in the 1800s. Located on the lower Mississippi River, just an hour drive from New Orleans, the mansion has been beautifully restored to the antebellum era, reflecting the wealth this sugarcane farm boasted in the 1880s. A guided mansion tour, led by costumed guides, walks you through the 250-year history, showing the architectural evolution of this manor house and how it became a grand estate. Rare and period artwork and artifacts are displayed and used to explain plantation life. You can also take a self-guided tour of the expansive gardens, which is an adventure in itself. Water features, secret gardens, sculptures, and magnificent Live Oak trees are a photographer's dream. Plenty of sitting nooks and shaded area are available to rest and enjoy the scenery. For movie lovers, Houmas House was the location for the 1964 psychological thriller “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” starring Betty Davis and Olivia de Havilland. It was deemed the scariest movie of its time and was also famous for the fact that Joan Crawford was originally cast opposite Betty Davis, but left the movie, much to the delight of her costar. Also, most recently, it was the setting for a few scenes in the 2019 award-winning movie “The Green Book”. Those are just a few of the many movies and TV shows filmed at Houmas House. For those interested in ghosts, Houmas House and Gardens is the site of two very serious, inexplicable events: one precipitated by nature, the other by the very unnatural.

Take a guided narrative tour down to Plantation Country in a 14-passenger bus and explore Laura, Oak Alley, or Whitney Plantation. Enjoy a convenient pickup between 8:00 and 8:30 AM from downtown hotels and head out for a 90-minute tour of the plantation of your choice. At the Laura Plantation, awarded the title of top travel attraction in Louisiana, you’ll visit the Big House, the French Garden, the Kitchen Garden, the Banana Grove, and the original 1840s slave cabins. Take time to browse through local arts, crafts, and souvenirs in the historic Laura Plantation gift shop. Don’t forget to visit the new museum exhibit about the inhabitants’ daily lives on the sugar plantation.   Oak Alley Plantation includes visits to the gracious interiors of the Big House as well as to the Oak Alley exhibit, that shares the stories of those who were enslaved on this sugar plantation from approximately 1835 to the end of the Civil War. Learn about health care, punishment, and life after Emancipation, as well as sugar’s impact on the people of Oak Valley. Finally, visit one of the few remaining 1890s-era forges of its type in Louisiana.   Whitney Plantation is the site of the last surviving example of a true French Creole Barn, what is believed to be the oldest detached kitchen in Louisiana, and an excellently-preserved Creole cottage. Through restored buildings, museum exhibits, memorial artwork, and thousands of first-person slave narratives, Whitney Plantation gives a voice and respect to the slaves who lived, worked, and died here.   Finish your day with a Louisiana swamp tour. The Cajun Captains will navigate their way through the back swamp. Learn about Louisiana Wetlands, the inhabitants of the swamp, and the history of the Louisiana Bayou and swamp exploration days.

From the beginning faith has ruled this great city. For some, it has created rumors of conspiracy, witchcraft, and vampires. For others, it inspired greatness. Lives have been lost and battlegrounds drawn, but New Orleans’ eclectic belief systems have created a sense of acceptance found nowhere else. Did you know that the famous voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau, was also a devout Catholic? Surprises abound on this inspiring journey. Join the most unique and interesting walking tour in New Orleans. New Orleans is a hot, humid and sometimes unforgiving place where in the dead of summer the air takes on the quality of a crawfish boil. It is a long, drawn out fever that seeps into the bloodstream and compels even the sweetest from small town America to do obscene things. This is the real New Orleans which does not fit neatly into the category of "American" city. It is a black water port, Caribbean and lawless; settled by thieves, prostitutes, and the other criminally disposed. It is also Catholic and pious with Roman altars trimmed in gold. It is equally black magic, voodoo, and the steady throb of African drums. New Orleans is sex and confession. It is sin and forgiveness. This is the place where God and the Devil shook hands so the party could go on. New Orleans is a city for the sinner and the saint. This is a tour that takes you through the sweat soaked madness of our best and worst. Get lost in this strange city and explore its dark past because this is not your grandmother's tour.

Explore the French Quarter of New Orleans with a local photographer with a passion for lively, colorful photos. Pose for incredible pictures in front of memorable landmarks. Meet your local photographer-guide in the French Quarter to start your tour. Take a relaxed walk around the neighborhood to find great spots to take photos. Follow your guide through this stunning part of New Orleans and learn about its history. See St. Louis Cathedral, Bourbon Street, and Royal Street. Stop for your photographer to snap amazing photos of you with recognizable New Orleans landmarks as your backdrop. Choose between focusing on the French Quarter or taking in all the highlights of New Orleans. Let your photographer help you find the right poses to capture you at your best, ensuring you have great photos to take home.