Alp yourself to a ski saver
If you need to get your fix of Mardi Gras, Mardi i Gras World is at Port of New Orleans Place and the neighbourhood of Tremé is home to the Backstreet Cultural Museum, packed with costumes and jazz memorabilia. WHY GO: New Orleans has its own distinctive culinary styles. Creole is a rich, seafood heavy mix of Spanish, French and African cuisines.
Sample smothered chicken and stuffed eggplant at Jacques Imo’s Cafe on Oak Street and shrimp and alligator cheesecake: jacques-imos.com.
Cajun is the rustic food of rural Louisiana, with things like gumbo – a kind of stew – shrimp with SKI in the French Alps this month in the snow-sure resort of Alpe d’Huez for £499 – saving £130. T The week-long catered b board holiday includes b buffet breakfasts, a afternoon tea and cake a and five-course urse evening gritsgr – coarsely ground cornmeal – and dirty rice – cookedco with minced chicken liver. Head to HerbsaintH on St Charles Avenue: herbsaint.com.
Meanwhile, breakfast at Brennan’s, in an old DeepD South townhouse, is an institution. Eggs come with crispy artichokes, parmesan creamed spinach andn andouille vinaigrette, all washed down with m milk punch or some peach schnapps: br brennansneworleans.com. WHY GO: It is a dozen years since e one of the biggest natural disasters on the American mainland and parts of New Orleans still bear the scars of Hurricane Katrina. Lower Ninth Ward was hardest hit and has mainly been rebuilt. There are daily tours of the area, a, meals with complimentary wine at the three-and-a-half-diamond Chalet Hotel Les Cimes. The price includes flights from Birmingham on March 25. To book, visit inghams.co.uk or call 01483 791 114. and the place where the levee – the embankment – broke at the height of the storm surge.
Look out for the colourful eco-friendly houses from the Make it Right Foundation, set up by Brad Pitt with the help of famous architects. WHAT IS HOT: The Cornstalk Hotel is in the heart of the French Quarter on Royal Street and has 14 individuall individually designed rooms with cherubs on the ceilings in this grand Victorian mansion. Doub Doubles from £115: cornstalkhotel.com. Just outside the French Quarter, decadent Int International House on Camp Street bo boasts red velvet chairs, candelabras and a bar plated with gold. Doubles from £8 £87: ihhotel.com. Loft 523 on Gravier St Street is a hipster place for writers and art artists who need space. Doubles from £103 £103: loft523.com. want to take the kids skiing but with three boys, it’s so expensive. Any thoughts on a taster session to see if they like it? THERE’S no getting away from the fact it’s pricey. But they can get a free taster during National Schools Snowsport Week at the Snowdome in Tamworth. During the event, from April 24-30, other slopes cost from as little as £1, going up to £10, for hour-long sessions. Schools, classes or groups of young people can grab offers at more than 20 slopes across the country, according to the NSSW. The offer does not allow parents to get on the slopes but you could organise a session for your boys through the school or by contacting your local slope. Go to nssw.co.uk.