Four Seasons New Orleans

Hotel & Private Residences

This 341-room property (from US$395) has brought a new level of luxury to a city whose reputation for hospitality strangely wasn’t synonymous with five-star service. It cost over US$500 million to renovate the 1967 World Trade Center building, and there was a deliberate attempt to make sure this renewal project benefited – and connected with – the surrounding community.

Locally made and sourced art abounds; one of the treatments in the spa was inspired by the New Orleans-born Sazerac cocktail; and the hotel pool – the largest in town – is shaped like a crescent to mirror the Mississippi River, which you can spot from its deck. The in-house restaurants are helmed by two celebrated New Orleans chefs: Donald Link, leaning into the Gulf Coast state’s seafood bounty, and Alon Shaya, offering regional classics.

When you want to explore, the hotel can arrange elevated experiences, such as private streetcar rides and jazz concerts. Or just stroll the surrounding riverside neighbourhood, which has been rebounding from a shabbier era thanks in part to the city’s efforts and to the hotel’s splashy arrival last August.