GAY NEW ORLEANS ATTRACTIONS

Featured New Orleans Attractions

CREOLE DELICACIES COOKIN CAJUN COOKING SCHOOL 
#1 Poydras Street, Store 116 Riverwalk, New Orleans, Louisiana 
800-523-6425     504-523-6425  
lisette@cookincajun.com 
Great food; Entertaining Chefs; Fantastic Views. Fun two hour cooking demonstration and a delicious four-course meal. Classes held Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 10 am - 12 noon. $20 per person. reservations 800-523-6425 or 504-523-6425 . Riverwalk Marketplace  - 3rd Floor. 

HOUMAS HOUSE PLANTATION AND GARDENS
40136 Highway 942, River Road, Darrow, Louisiana
225-473-9380
Houmas House Plantation and Gardens is so much more than just a tour of a grand antebellum estate. Experience the southern splendor of "The Sugar Palace" when you step into 16 rooms filled with period antiques and Louisiana artwork.  Stay as long as you like at our Louisiana Plantation and enjoy 12 lush acres of gardens, ponds and a majestic live oak alley. Relax with a game of croquet, enjoy the breeze off the Mississippi and navigate through the shadows of ancient oaks. Embrace the Crown Jewel of Louisiana's River Road at your own pace and experience our hospitality as a welcomed guest. 

HURRICANE KATRINA VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES 
Since Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the metropolitan New Orleans community has been the beneficiary of an incredible outpouring of support from visitors to New Orleans. From convention visitors to leisure travelers, church groups to high school and college students, people have shown incredible generosity in giving of their time and talent, and a great deal of elbow grease, helping the city of New Orleans in its recovery and restoration. The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, has established through her office a Web site matching those interested in volunteering with organizations seeking assistance in New Orleans and throughout South Louisiana. 

NEW ORLEANS GHOST TOUR 
625 St. Philip Street, New Orleans
504-628-1722 Email: ghosttour@cox.net 
Gruesomely twisted historically accurate tales of the French Quarter. Tours every day of the year: Ghost, Vampire, Cemetery & Voodoo. Family friendly fun. Proudly locally owned and operated. Discount for reservations online www.neworleansghosttour.com 

NEW ORLEANS SPIRIT TOURS  
621 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 
866-369-1224    504-314-0806  
New Orleans Spirit Tours: Walking tours featuring our famous Cemeteries, Voodoo Legends like Marie Laveau and real life Ghosts of the French Quarter. Walk through the historic French Quarter and discover why New Orleans is the most fascinating city in America. 

STEAMBOAT NATCHEZ  
Toulouse Street Dock, New Orleans, Louisiana  
800-233-2628    504-586-8777  info@neworleanssteamboat.com 
Authentic sternwheel steamboat Harbor/Jazz Cruise at 11:30am or 2:30 pm. Optional food & beverage (full bar), museum quality engine room visits, steam calliope, historic and port narration. Dinner Jazz Cruise 7:00pm with Dukes of Dixieland Jazz Band. New Orleans only steam powered sternwheeler. Departs French Quarter Toulouse Street Dock.

VOODOO MUSEUM 
724 Dumaine St., New Orleans, Louisiana
504-680-0128
Call for hours/tours) contains paintings, ceremonial objects, potions and gris-gris, little pouches filled with pungent herbs (remember "Rosemary's Baby"?) and magic talismans to ward off evil spirits.

Gay New Orleans Attractions

Barataria Preserve  
504-589-2330 
Part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park. Stroll along the raised walkways deep into the bayou and experience the local ecology up close and personal. Alligators abound here, as do a variety of other flora and fauna. Wildflowers bloom throughout the year, and in late March through early April, fields of indigenous irises come into bloom.

Beauregard-Keyes House and Garden  
1113 Chartres Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
504-523-725
Built in 1826, is an example of the Greek Revival style, and was home to Civil War general Pierre G.T. Beauregard and, later, writer Frances Parkinson Keyes.

Bourbon Street is a must-see -- teeming with drunk rednecks, dense with gaudy signage and lined with bars and strip shows blaring with noise.

CEMETERY: St. Louis Cemetery 1
400 Basin Street, between Toulouse and St. Louis Streets
The oldest in the city, dating back to 1788, and is appropriately craggy and mossy, filled with crumbling tombs and twisting paths. (Because New Orleans is below sea level, the deceased had to be buried above ground in mausoleums or tombs.) Scratch a cross on Marie Laveau's tomb with a piece of brick after turning around and knocking on the slab three times: she'll grant you any favor.

CEMETERY: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 
Washington Avenue between Prytania and Coliseum Streets 
In the Garden District, formerly called Lafayette prior to being incorporated as part of New Orleans, is where local scribe Anne Rice set many scenes of her "Vampire Chronicles." Note: Don't venture into the cemeteries alone, even during the day.

Drama! is a gay and lesbian arts organization that performs at the Marigny Theatre (1030 Marigny St; 504/947-0505; www.dramano.org).

Faubourg Marigny, the first community in the city founded outside the cramped confines of the Quarter in about 1810. Many of the area's French colonial mansions have been restored by gay couples (witness the numerous rainbow flags) and yuppies, although the restoration isn't complete -- there are still a few crumbling mansions in neglected pockets.

Gallier House  
1132 Royal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
504-525-5661
So accurately restored to its Victorian finery that it's literally like stepping back a hundred years.

Hermann-Grima House  
820 St. Louis St., New Orleans, Louisiana
504-525-5661
A Federal mansion with courtyard garden, horse stable and the only functioning outdoor kitchen in the Quarter.

JACKSON SQUARE 
(Chartres Street, bordered by St. Ann, St. Peter and Decatur Streets) is the Vieux Carré's heart, for it is here that much of the city's historic events took place -- perhaps most important, the signing of the Louisiana Purchase in the Cabildo (see below) in 1803. It makes a logical place to start exploring the Quarter. 
The square is presided over by the simple and elegant St. Louis Cathedral (the oldest cathedral in the United States, although the current structure is the third to occupy the site), from where the bell in the central spire still chimes out every quarter hour, as it has for the last two hundred years. Also on the square are the Cabildo (701 Chartres St.; 504/568-6968) and Presbytere (751 Chartres St; 504/568-6968), twin Spanish colonial buildings flanking the cathedral. Both are historical museums devoted to the history and culture of the region. The Cabildo is the more interesting of the two, containing the actual documents comprising the Louisiana Purchase, costumes, artifacts and furniture. The Presbytere features temporary exhibits on New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. 

Julia Row's dozen or so red brick buildings were once home to the city's wealthy merchant class around 1820. They've been refurbished and now house shops and art administration offices.

LaLaurie House
New Orleans has a real haunted house at 1140 Royal St. (not open to the public). The black-and-gray LaLaurie House was the mid-19th-century home of Delphine LaLaurie, a spoiled and cruel socialite who whipped and tortured her slaves in her attic. One slave, a young girl, fell to her death from the roof trying to escape. Reputedly, her cries and the crack of a whip can still be heard late at night emanating from the mansion.

Museum of World War II  
945 Magazine St., New Orleans, Louisiana
504-527-6012 or 877-813-3329
Founded by late historian Stephen Ambrose and opened in 2000, in the city in which all the landing craft used in the amphibious invasions on D-Day were built. Comprising a renovated four-story 19th-century warehouse and the adjoining four-story glass-fronted Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, the museum chronicles the weeks leading up to June 6, 1944, when the Allies of World War II stormed the beaches in Normandy. Interactive exhibits mix veterans' oral histories with artifacts, documents, photographs, hands-on activities and never-before-seen film footage.

New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park  
916 N. Peters St., New Orleans, Louisiana
504-589-4841 or 877-520-0677
Learn about the history of Jazz in New Orleans, and its influence on jazz at large.

New Orleans Museum of Art  
1 Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana
504-658-4100
Has wowed the art world, and is a must-see for museumgoers. Built in 1912 by Isaac Delgado, the museum's permanent exhibits contain works by European 20th century masters and a fascinating survey of early Renaissance paintings comprising the Kress Collection. Open Wednesdays through Sundays.

Pontalba Apartments
Twin rows of brick rowhouses built in 1849-51, reputed to be the oldest apartment house in America. Among the famous tenants who have lived here are William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson. Around the corner at 632 St. Peter Street is where Tennessee Williams finished penning "A Streetcar Named Desire."