New Orleans

New Orleans is a river and lake city, not a beach one. Lake Pontchartrain borders the north of the city but is used for walking and sailing rather than bathing, and the Mississippi is a working river with strong currents that nobody swims in.

The nearest sand is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast around Bay St. Louis and Gulfport, a drive of well over an hour. The water there is warm, close to 29°C in summer, but it is shallow and brownish rather than clear. Anyone who wants proper white-sand beaches has to drive much further east. For most visitors, swimming means a hotel pool.

Few cities have a cuisine so plainly their own. Creole cooking, built from French, Spanish, West African and Caribbean roots, sits alongside the rustic Cajun food of the bayous: gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée, red beans and rice on Mondays, turtle soup, shrimp and grits. Some of the old-line dining rooms in the French Quarter have served the same dishes for more than a century, while neighbourhood po'boy shops and corner restaurants in Mid-City and the Bywater feed locals. Beignets and chicory coffee at the riverside open-air café near Jackson Square are a ritual in themselves.

The seasons matter: spring brings crawfish boils, and oysters, raw or chargrilled, are best in the cooler months. Drinking is part of the cuisine too, with the Sazerac and the Vieux Carré born here and a strong tradition of serious cocktail bars. Vietnamese cooking in the eastern suburbs adds a second layer. What it lacks is much range beyond its own tradition, and the food is rich and heavy.

The French Quarter is the city's great sight. It is an unusually complete old colonial town for the United States: a grid of Creole townhouses and Spanish-era buildings with iron balconies, hidden courtyards and arcades. At its centre are Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, the old Spanish seat of government where Louisiana was formally handed over to the United States in 1803. Uptown, the Garden District and St. Charles Avenue show the city's other face, with grand antebellum mansions under live oaks.

The above-ground tombs of the old cemeteries are among the most distinctive sights in the city. The National WWII Museum is a large and serious institution, and the New Orleans Museum of Art and its sculpture garden stand in City Park. Beyond these the list of museums is short. The pleasure lies more in the streets and in the layered Creole, African American and Caribbean heritage than in a long list of major collections.

New Orleans has no legal closing time, and drinks can be carried in plastic cups along the street, which shapes the whole night. Bourbon Street is the loud, neon end of it: balcony bars, daiquiri counters and crowds until dawn, especially around Mardi Gras and big weekends. Locals tend to go out elsewhere, along Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, in the dive bars of the Bywater and Mid-City, and in the old neighbourhood corner bars that never seem to shut.

The character is street-level and sociable rather than club-driven: the dance-club scene is modest, and the best nights drift from bar to bar on foot. Carnival season turns the city into one long party. Pickpockets and drunken crowds are part of the late scene on Bourbon Street, and side streets outside the busy areas are best left by taxi at night.

The landscape is flat, wet and low, and its interest lies in the water. Within an hour are cypress swamps and bayous where boat tours and kayaks pass alligators, herons and Spanish moss, with boardwalk trails in the Barataria Preserve south of the river. The vast Atchafalaya Basin is further west. In town, City Park is one of the larger urban parks in the country, with ancient live oaks, lagoons and cycling paths, and the levee along the Mississippi makes a good walk or ride.

There are no hills to climb, and the summer heat and humidity make outdoor activity hard from June to September. Spring and late autumn are the times to be outside.

The classic outing follows the River Road upstream along the Mississippi to the old sugar plantations, about an hour away. Oak Alley is famous for its avenue of oaks, while the Whitney tells the history of the people enslaved there and is the most moving of them. Baton Rouge, the state capital, has its Art Deco capitol tower and the Old State Capitol.

East along the Gulf, small coastal towns such as Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs make an easy, relaxed day. Lafayette and the Cajun prairie towns, with their dance halls and boudin, are about two hours west and stretch the limit of a day trip. Beyond these, the choice is thin.

There is more for children than the city's party reputation suggests. Audubon Zoo in Uptown has a well-known Louisiana swamp area, the Aquarium of the Americas sits on the riverfront, and City Park holds a children's amusement park with an antique carousel, a storybook garden and the Louisiana Children's Museum. Streetcar rides, paddle-steamer trips on the river and Mardi Gras parades, with their thrown beads and family-friendly spots along St. Charles Avenue, go down well with younger children.

The difficulties are real, though. Summers are very hot and humid, Bourbon Street is no place for children at night, and parents need to be careful about which areas they walk in after dark.

Most of what a visitor wants lies in a compact, flat band along the river. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District can all be covered on foot. The streetcars are the city's charm: the St. Charles line runs historic green cars through the Garden District and Uptown, and other lines reach Canal Street, the riverfront and City Park.

The streetcars are slow, though, and the bus network is limited, so visitors often rely on ride-hailing for the airport, the swamps and some neighbourhoods. Summer heat makes long walks tiring, and some stretches between neighbourhoods are best not walked at night. A car is useful only for day trips.

Shopping here is about character rather than luxury. Royal Street in the French Quarter has a long tradition of antique dealers and galleries selling chandeliers, estate jewellery and old Louisiana furniture. Magazine Street runs for miles through Uptown and the Garden District, lined with independent boutiques, vintage shops, home-design stores and local art.

The French Market sells crafts, local hot sauces and pralines, and Mardi Gras masks and Carnival costumes are the city's own speciality. Much of the Quarter, especially near Bourbon Street, is T-shirts and souvenirs, and anyone looking for big flagship stores and designer labels will find only a modest choice in the central malls.

For a major American destination, New Orleans is moderate rather than cheap. Po'boys, red beans and rice, neighbourhood bars and the streetcar keep daily costs reasonable, and many of the city's greatest pleasures, from street musicians to walking the Quarter, are free.

Rooms are the main expense. Hotels in and near the French Quarter are priced like a big American city, sales and hotel taxes are high, and rates climb sharply during Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and other big weekends. Staying a little outside the Quarter, along the streetcar lines, and visiting in the hot summer months keeps costs down.

Jazz was born here, and live music is the reason many people come. On any night of the year there is traditional jazz, brass bands, funk, blues, Cajun, zydeco and R&B in the clubs along Frenchmen Street, in the old French Quarter jazz hall where traditional jazz has been played since the 1960s, and in neighbourhood bars across Tremé, Uptown and the Bywater. Street musicians play on Royal Street, and on Sundays for much of the year second-line parades with brass bands move through the neighbourhoods.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in spring and the French Quarter Festival are major dates in the calendar, and the Mardi Gras Indians keep their own traditions of chant and costume. The formal side is modest. There is the Louisiana Philharmonic, a small opera company, and touring Broadway shows at the historic Saenger Theatre. Visitors looking for a full season of opera, orchestras and serious theatre will find little of it here. The music on the streets and in the clubs is the real offer.

There is no bathing or spa tradition here, and wellness is limited to day spas in the larger hotels and a few independent studios. The French Quarter at night is the opposite of restorative.

What the city does offer is an unhurried pace. Mornings in a quiet courtyard guesthouse, slow streetcar rides under the oaks of St. Charles Avenue and long, lazy afternoons in City Park suit a visitor who wants to slow down, but nobody comes for rest alone.