Things to See in New Orleans

There's no denying the Quarter's appeal. It's walkable, picturesque, always busy, and filled with an extraordinary range of great restaurants, bars, nightclubs, courtyard cafés, art galleries, rummage shops and quirky museums. A visitor can walk these blocks time and time again and on each occasion notice something new.

There are bars galore on Bourbon St where tourists and locals alike roam, fuelled by booze. Bourbon St is New Orleans' entertainment equivalent of a cut-price buffet - the amusements are slopped out with indifference, but as the great songwriter Lee Hazelwood once said, 'You won't find it on any map, but take a step in any direction and you're in trouble.'

The excellent Ogden Museum of Southern Art displays a vast collection of modern artwork as well as definitive early outsider art, like that of Clementine Hunter. Henry Hobson Richardson designed the intricate stone annex.

When there is no parade happening in New Orleans, you can get your fill of floats at Mardi Gras World where most of the best parade floats are made and stored. It's across the river from the French Quarter, in historic Algiers Point. The man behind the magic is Blaine Kern - 'Mr Mardi Gras' - who has been making parade floats since 1947.

This fascinating museum explores the history of voodoo, the exotic form of spiritual expression first brought to New Orleans by West African slaves who came on ships via Haiti. Tours of the museum are self-guided, so carefully read the handout as you pass through the rooms; otherwise, there is little to explain the exhibited arcana.

A number of bars in New Orleans, including this one, served absinthe before it was outlawed in 1914. Today, Herbsaint, a locally produced anisette, is a relatively safe stand-in for old absinthe-based drinks. The bar itself is an historic spot, having opened in 1807, but the crowd is generally of the bottom-shelf Bourbon St variety.

Specializing in big-name, touring acts, the main hall can be cavernous. The smaller upstairs Parish room offers a little more soul.

This Warehouse District mainstay hosts bigger local acts as well as touring rock and alt-rock bands.

Handy for a quick, sodium-rich meal after everything else is closed. The take-out menu seems endless, but stick with basics like po'boys, seafood sandwiches and the daily chef specials and you'll do all right. The main selling points are the traditional seamy atmosphere and free delivery within the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny.

One of the best for traditional haute Creole cuisine, Arnaud's was founded in 1918 by the extravagant French 'Count' Arnaud Cazenave. The restaurant is an agglomeration of buildings that take up almost an entire city block; the main dining room exhudes stately old-world elegance. The food isn't scintillating but the seafood specialities are handled well.

Here's where hardcore oyster fiends go for their fix of raw ones on the half shell. The oysters are always the freshest and are administered in a most impeccably clean, vintage 1949 setting imaginable. A thick gumbo with Creole tomatoes and oyster loaf (a sandwich of breaded and fried oysters on white bread) also have faithful followers.