On a high in Dubai
SHOP till you drop in Dubai then recover in exotic Sri Lanka on a ten-night break – and save £200. The £1,249 offer takes in three nights at the four-star Majestic Hotel Tower Dubai, B&B, then seven nights for the price of six at four-star plus Avani Bentota, B&B. It also includes transfers and flights from Heathrow on March 26. Go to hayesandjarvis.co.uk. WITH British Airways starting direct flights from March 27, getting to the Big Easy is set to get a helluva lot easier. And here’s what makes New Orleans so different and so appealing WHY GO: Nowhere in America looks as scrumptious as the Louisiana city of New Orleans, with its picture-perfect pastel-painted period houses laced with frilly cast-iron balconies. This steamy sub-tropical city is a cocktail like no other, one that mixes sublime jazz, extraordinary festivals, Creole and Cajun cuisine, and a huge sense of liberation.
There are few places in the US with such a diverse history. Founded by the French, ruled by the Spanish, sold to the US and settled by Afro-Caribbeans. It is tailor-made for walking, and partying. It is the only American city where it is legal to drink in the street. WHY GO: The popular image of New Orleans comes from the bohemian French Quarter, a neat 18th-century grid of blocks by the riverside. Check out places such as Bourbon Street, Chartres and Royal Street with jazz bars, boutiques, galleries and impromptu performances on the sidewalk.
Barely a day goes by without some kind of procession. By night even the sleepiest corners come alive with banjo buskers. Its relaxed heart is handsome Jackson Square, with splendid horse and carriages, along with the pencil-point spires of St Louis Cathedral.
To complete the picture, antique streetcars trundle up Canal Street, dividing the French Quarter from the more modern city. WHY GO: There’s more to New Orleans than just the French Quarter. A classic attraction to the west is the graceful Garden District, filled with glorious mansions and oaks, threaded through by the Charles Avenue streetcars.
Between the Garden District and the French Quarter is the up-and-coming Warehouse District, full of galleries and museums. As with European ports, these institutions occupy converted old grain stores and warehouses – more than 25 galleries call the district home.
The big name is the Contemporary Arts Centre but also here are the likes of the National World War II Museum and the Children’s Museum. WHY GO: The Mississippi river is why New Orleans exists and it has nearly been its undoing, with swamps and lakes on all sides and parts of the city well below river level.
A traditional activity is to take a riverwalk along the French Quarter, followed by a beignet – choux pastry fritter – at Cafe Du Monde. This legendary coffee house across the way from Jackson Square is the place to watch the cargo ships glide past at eye level, taking the big bend at surprising speed.
Traditional steamboats offer jazz and sunset cruises here. But if you’re interested in watery tours, then head out of town for an airboat tour of the alligator-rich bayous and the brackish Louisiana swamplands. WHY GO: You’re going to hear When The Saints many times. It is impossible not to get sucked in by the rhythms of zydeco, r’n’b, blues, jazz, reggae, dixieland and swing.
There are more than 50 live music venues so youyo can’t go far wrong but one hotspot is FrenchmenFr Street on the northern edge of the FrenchFr Quarter, which has a dozen within a few blocks,b places such as the Spotted Cat and SnugSn Harbor.
The grandaddy of them all is Preservation H Hall on St Peter Street, with its crumbling walls an and ceiling fans. If you don’t want to queue, buy yo your tickets in advance: preservationhall.com. WHYW GO: New Orleans’s most famous festival – Fe February’s Mardi Gras – is already over for this ye year, but there is still plenty to enjoy.
There is the Jazz Fest, the French Quarter Fest, th the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience, the Po Po-Boy Festival and St Patrick’s Day. And there’s us usually some kind of costumed parade going on.