Tour The Big Easy

French Quarter Walking Tour

French Quarter Fountain

Discover the mystery and magic of the Creole people that made the French Quarter their own. 

The things that make New Orleans great have thrived for hundreds of years. The great things that are at the core of the city are still there for all to see, things like the Faubourg Marigny, the French Quarter, Magazine Street and the Garden District are all still going strong.

Both the online holiday planning sites Orbitz and Travel+Leisure have chosen The Big Easy as a top destination for last year and the Today Show gave it second place in its America the Beautiful Series.

So it's been established. New Orleans is a place with lots of things going on that make it special and above average. Part of what makes the town unique is the interesting way things are planned and put together in The Big Easy. A good example is the Audubon Aquarium and Imax Theatre Combo.

The building that houses the Audubon Aquarium imposes its large structure against the Mississippi River. It should cut an impressive profile since the aquarium is home to 15,000 sea life creatures. There's even a Caribbean Reef Tunnel that gives visitors a chance to see the same sea life as Caribbean divers.

The Audubon Aquarium is one of the only places you'll see a white alligator in captivity outside of the swamps where they live. The aquarium shares its address with another famous landmark and attraction, The Entergy IMAX Theatre.

Still, many of the visitors to New Orleans prefer to take advantage of the clean safe tours offered. One of the most popular is the City and Cemetery Tour. Because New Orleans is built on a swamp, all the dead must be buried above ground in crypts and as these crypts amassed over the years, they've taken on the look of a village and become a tourist attraction.

Still, New Orleans offers more conventional tours as well that still touch on the city's rich history. The New Orleans Grand Tour, and The West Bank Plantation Tour , both by Van, is a step back into the south's past. The tour departs most New Orleans' hotels and visits the Cajun heritage including the sites of several plantations.

The West Bank Plantation Tour includes Oak Alley Plantation where guests will have the chance to marvel at the Greek Revival Architecture. The guide on this tour will be able to tell the visitors all about the generations of plantation owners and the slaves who spent their lives struggling there.

No trip to the Deep South and New Orleans in particular would be complete without a visit to the swamps in the area and Westwego Swamp Adventures supplies the best and most affordable rates. The two-hour excursion through the Bayou starts with a naturalist presentation at the dock beforehand.
Although the tour is only twenty minutes from downtown New Orleans, you'll feel like you've left civilization completely behind as you travel through the wetlands and swamps where you might even be lucky enough to see a gator or two!