Product Description

New Orleans is a world apart from the rest of the Untied States, a city that has held on to its distinctive character and French Creole heritage. It is home to some of the world's finest musicians as well as the famous Mardi Gras carnival. The Rough Guide to New Orleans takes you through it all in great detail, providing informed reviews and lively accounts of the best that the city has to offer. Features include excursions to plantations, a history of Mardi Gras and, features on local history in general.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #372022 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Samantha Cook first visited New Orleans in 1990, and liked it so much, she has returned every year since. She has been involved with Rough Guides for ten years, starting out as an author on the Rough Guide to the USA and contributing to many other titles.

Excerpted from Mini Rough Guide New Orleans (Rough Guides (Mini)) by Samantha Cook. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHEN TO VISIT
New Orleans has a subtropical climate, with warm temperatures, high humidity and heavy rainfall. Thanks to its busy convention calendar, swarming weekend tourist traffic and a seemingly endless stream of festivals, the city stays pretty full year-round, but the peak tourist seasons are Mardi Gras – which starts on Twelfth Night and builds up in intensity until Mardi Gras itself, the day before Ash Wednesday – and Jazz Fest, which spreads across a fortnight at the end of April and the start of May. Both, along with the increasingly popular French Quarter festival, occur in spring, which is a pleasant, sunny time to visit. However, the humidity is already building up by then, and Jazz Fest especially can be plagued by heavy rain.
The torpid months between May and September, when the blistering heat and intense humidity prove debilitating in the extreme, count as off-season; prices may be lower and crowds thinner at this time, but for good reason. From May to November the city is at risk from the hurricanes that sweep through the Gulf of Mexico. Even if it doesn’t get a direct hit, New Orleans can be seriously affected by a tropical storm landing anywhere along the coast.
Climate-wise, fall is one of the best times to visit: October especially tends to be sunny, warm and relatively dry, though the nights can be chilly. Even in winter the days don’t usually get too cold; the nights, however, are another matter, cursed by the bone-bitingly damp air that creeps in from the river.
Plagued by heavy pollination, humidity and pollution, New Orleans is a year-round nightmare for allergy sufferers, and can bring on miserable symptoms even for those who have never experienced them before. Bring your own medication, or stock up when you arrive.

Customer Reviews

A very good guide to New Orleans
I'm a fan of the rough guides anyway, and a bigger fan of New Orleans. I'm American from the south and this is the book that I recommend to friends who decide to venture off the beaten track of U.S. destinations to this wonderful, very non-American experience of a city. As someone in New Orleans once said to me, "Now that you're in New Orleans, let New Orleans come to you." This book does a good job of explaining the background of the city, the odd tidbits about some of the sights and useful help on locating good tours and places to eat.