Highlights

U S Tours Flexible Pricing:

• Customizable Comps
• Net Rates
• Luxury or First Class Hotels & Meals
• Motorcoach Transportation & Professional Tour Managers are available

Whatever you want, U S Tours will be happy to structure tour prices to match your needs.  Just let us know!

Itinerary

Day 1 – Friday – New Orleans, LA – French Quarter Lodging 

This is arrival day in New Orleans, LA where you enjoy a three night stay at a hotel located in the French Quarter.  This evening, dinner is included at a local restaurant. (D)

Day 2 – Saturanday – Big Easy Guided City Tour – Free Time on The Riverwalk – Vue Orleans Observation Deck – Free Time in French Quarter – New Orleans School of Cooking Demonstration & Dinner 

This morning, sit back and relax in comfort on your motorcoach as you enjoy a narrated driving tour through historic New Orleans. Pass Jackson Square, the French Market, and Congo Square. See Basin Street and hear about Storyville, the infamous red-light district of New Orleans where Dixieland Jazz got its start. Travel down Bayou St. John, where the original plantation homes remain today. Walk through St. Louis III, one the New Orleans’ famous cemeteries and learn about their unique above group burials.

Marvel as you drive under magnificent, 100 year old oak trees in City Park. Coffee & beignets await you! Drive along Lake Pontchartrain, the 4th largest lake in the United States, and hear about how New Orleans is built below sea level. Travel through the University section, uptown New Orleans and down St. Charles Avenue, the avenue of streetcars, millionaires and churches. See millionaire’s row, a replica of Tara from “Gone With the Wind,” and many other magnificent mansions of the Avenue.

Next, enjoy free time and lunch on own at The Riverwalk.  Here you will find your retailers, specialty stores, and popular restaurants.

The afternoon features a visit to Vue Orleans Observation Deck.  Located 33 floors above downtown New Orleans where Canal Street meets the Mississippi River, Vue Orleans immerses you in a multisensory 4-D experience with nine original films, seven interactive exhibits and the city’s only rooftop 360-degree panoramic viewing platform. The attraction uses different technology at every turn to celebrate the art, music, food and history of New Orleans in a way that connects popular culture with its historical foundation.

Then there will be time to explore the historic French Quarter on your own.

End the day with a Cooking Demonstration & Dinner at the New Orleans School of Cooking. It’s entertaining classes and the Louisiana General Store are located in a renovated molasses warehouse built in the early 1800s in the Heart of the French Quarter. Fun is a primary ingredient in their kitchen! Creole/Cajun experts teach you how to make New Orleans specialties such as Gumbo, Jambalaya and Pralines, and season them with history, trivia and tall tales. It’s a “ga-ron-teed” good time for all. (B,D)

Day 3 – Sunday – Visit The Presbytere – Holiday Live Jazz Brunch – Creole Holiday Traditions House Tour – Celebration in the Oaks

(This day involves a lot of walking, and anyone with mobility issues may have some difficulty) 

Start the day with a visit to The Presbytere which houses an elaborate and exquisite collection of Mardi Gras artifacts and memorabilia. The story of New Orleans’ extraordinary Mardi Gras tradition is dynamically told in a high-tech, interactive, permanent exhibition titled “Mardi Gras: It’s Carnival Time in Louisiana.” The exhibit traces the celebration from its ancient origins to the 19th century emergence of New Orleans’ parades and balls to present-day celebration that attracts millions of visitors each year. The new $7.5 million exhibition Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond offers an unforgettable experience of the power of hurricanes. Eyewitness accounts, state-of-the-art sound and video, and rare artifacts recount tragic devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Then enjoy a Holiday Live Jazz Brunch at Court of Two Sisters.  Partake in a New Orleans tradition as you feast on a true Cajun-Creole brunch while a live jazz band fills the courtyard with music. Choose from over 30 menu items, including local favorites such as eggs benedict, grits and grillades, duck à l’orange, jambalaya, gumbo, red beans & rice, and of course, mimosas. This mix of New Orleans’ food and culture at the Court of Two Sisters is sure to satisfy body and soul.

The afternoon features a discovery of Creole Holiday Traditions at the Hermann-Grima House & The Gallier House. The culmination of the Creole holiday season was a New Year’s Day celebration, when New Orleanians exchanged gifts and called on one another.  While on tour, you will view the holidays through the lens of enslavement, while also learning about local methods of holiday decorating and culinary traditions. Groups will be split into two or three smaller groups in order to tour these houses.  Starting at one house then switching to tour the other one.

At the Hermann-Grima House, see Creole holiday traditions from the 19^th-century while touring the Hermann-Grima house and slave quarters, an example of historic preservation and interpretation in the French Quarter.  This home is dressed for 19^th-century New Year’s celebrations.

Then the Gallier House is dressed for a traditional 19^th-century Creole Christmas celebration.  Built in 1860, by local architect James Gallier, Jr. as his private family residence, this Victorian French Quarter townhouse exemplifies innovative and advanced features for this time period.

Tonight, enjoy Celebration in the Oaks in New Orleans City Park – THE New Orleans holiday tradition.  It is one of the most beautiful holiday light exhibitions in the country, consisting of more than two million bright and shiny lights illuminating the park. Stroll through a park filled with 100-year-old oak trees twinkling with holiday cheer. Walk through the Botanical Garden and Storyland, an amusement area aglow with holiday magic! Dinner is on your own this evening. (B,L)

Day 4 – Monday – Depart for Home

After breakfast, you will depart for home. (B)

Tour Map