Where should I stay in New Orleans?

The French Quarter between Canal Street and Esplanade Avenue is where first-time visitors should book. Jackson Square dates to 1721. St. Louis Cathedral and The Cabildo sit within 200 meters of it along Decatur Street. Hotels on the Canal Street edge run $150-280 per night and sit at the transfer point for the St. Charles streetcar, which reaches the Garden District in about 15 minutes. The Quarter sounds different block by block. Royal Street stays quiet enough for sleep past midnight, with gallery owners pulling iron shutters closed around 9pm. Two blocks over on Bourbon, bass from the bars rattles windows until 4am. Book on Royal, Chartres, or Dauphine between St. Louis and Dumaine streets, where rooms face interior courtyards and the loudest thing at midnight is a fountain dripping onto flagstone.

The Garden District along St. Charles Avenue is better value and the stronger pick on a return visit. Rates here sit around $120-220 per night for a boutique hotel or converted-mansion B&B. The streetcar stops every three blocks, so Canal Street is 15 minutes away without a rideshare. After the afternoon storms that roll through most September days, the neighborhood smells like jasmine and wet magnolia leaves. Commander's Palace, where the 25-cent martini lunch has run on weekdays for decades, stands across from the gates of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The trade-off is real. You're 25 minutes from Frenchmen Street's live music by streetcar, and a late night out means a $12-18 Uber back.

Faubourg Marigny and the Bywater work for visitors who want live brass over Bourbon Street frozen daiquiris. Frenchmen Street between Chartres and Dauphine packs five or six music clubs into two blocks, where trumpet bleeds through the walls into the humid night air. Shotgun-house B&Bs and short-term rentals run $80-170 per night. Bacchanal Fine Wine and Spirits on Chartres Street in the Bywater operates as a wine shop in front and an open courtyard with live jazz in back, cheese boards at $16-22. That said, this part of town gets darker and quieter past Elysian Fields Avenue. New Orleans scores 3.8 out of 10 on TTDI's solo-traveler safety index (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and the Marigny's unlit side streets after midnight are part of the reason. Stick to well-lit blocks and use rideshares after 11pm.

September is low season in New Orleans for a reason. The temperature hit 32.3°C on September 1, with 62% humidity pushing the felt temperature to 37°C. Hotels drop rates 30-40% from Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest peaks, so that $150 Canal Street room might go for $95-110. Hurricane season peaks this month, and afternoon thunderstorms turn the Quarter's brick sidewalks slick and warm underfoot by 3pm. Pack a rain jacket for the September storms. The Quarter's narrow sidewalks make umbrellas impractical anyway. Families should look at the Warehouse District near the National WWII Museum, where the city scores 7.2 out of 10 for family friendliness (see the TTDI Family-Friendliness Index) and the grid-pattern sidewalks are wide enough for strollers. The New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park, open since 1911, is a 20-minute streetcar-and-bus combination from Canal Street.