Is New Orleans LGBTQ-friendly?

Base yourselves in the Marigny rather than on Bourbon. Hotel Peter & Paul on Burgundy Street fills a converted 19th-century church, rectory and schoolhouse, and the schoolhouse rooms have tall shuttered windows, painted floorboards and a hush you will not find anywhere in the French Quarter. Frenchmen Street is a 10-minute walk. We'd skip the Bourbon-facing balcony rooms at the big Quarter hotels: on Fridays and Saturdays, club bass rattles the glass until about 4am. If one of you wants the dance floor and the other wants sleep, Lafitte Guest House at 1003 Bourbon sits a block past the last bar, so one partner can walk home at midnight while the other stays out.

The split day works well here. The history buff can spend a morning in the Cabildo on Jackson Square, where the Louisiana Purchase transfer was signed in 1803, then walk next door to St. Louis Cathedral as its bells mark the hour. Meanwhile the food lover can take a cab to Dooky Chase's on Orleans Avenue in Tremé for fried chicken and a dark, peppery bowl of gumbo at lunch. Meet back on Frenchmen at dusk. Tonight, Monday 19 October, the Charmaine Neville Band plays Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro at 626 Frenchmen, and we'd ask for the upstairs balcony seats, which look straight down onto the stage. Sunday night ran clear and 14°C at midnight, so bring a layer for the walk back past the brass players on the corner of Chartres.

A warning on 'romantic' Bourbon Street. The 100 to 700 blocks belong to bachelorette parties with neon go-cups, plastic beads and Hand Grenade cocktails that taste of melon syrup, and the crowd changes a couple of blocks downriver. For a quieter date, go to Bacchanal Wine at 600 Poland Avenue in the Bywater: you pick a bottle and a cheese in the shop, then carry them out to the backyard, where a jazz trio plays under string lights and the gravel crunches underfoot. It fills by 7pm on weekends, so on a weeknight, arriving around 5pm will likely get you a table near the band.

Timing matters this month. Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October, and the Quarter and Marigny turn into a costumed street party from Thursday onward, with room rates rising to match, so book now or shift your trip a week later. For the partner who wants rest rather than a third night out, the Country Club at 634 Louisa Street in the Bywater has a pool, a hot tub, and a sauna behind an 1884 raised-cottage facade, with a mostly gay daytime crowd. Parts of the pool deck are clothing-optional, so check before you bring a squeamish friend along.