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Louisiana

Signature City New Orleans

Program No. 2856RJ

Get to know the real New Orleans through full days of excursions to historic landmarks, artists’ haunts and jazz venues. Plus, sample cuisine at the New Orleans School of Cooking!

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6 days

5 nights

12 meals

4B 1BR 3L 4D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

New Orleans, LA

Intro. to New Orleans, City Field Trip, Sculpture Garden

New Orleans, LA

New Orleans Architecture, Garden District Tour, Ogden Museum

New Orleans, LA

World War II Museum, Music Lecture, Free Time

New Orleans, LA

Literature lecture, Sazerac House, Free Time, Cooking School

New Orleans, LA

Jazz Brunch, Program Concludes

New Orleans, LA

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At a Glance

With over 300 years of colorful culture under its belt, New Orleans revels in its giddy blend of European refinement and carefree effervescence, a place where virtue and vice are celebrated in equal measure. On this introduction to New Orleans, we’ve planned a full schedule of activities, so you can experience the intoxicating charms of “the Crescent City” that have long fascinated artists, writers, musicians and scholars. Experience live New Orleans jazz, and take field trips inside and outside the French Quarter and Garden District. Get perspectives on architectural and literary landmarks, and enjoy unique culinary adventures as well as the National World War II Museum.

Activity Level

On Your Feet

Moderate walking and standing.

Best of all, you’ll…

See Lake Pontchartrain, Bayou St. John, the famed aboveground cemeteries and St. Charles Avenue, including a walk in the Garden District to take in its historic architecture.
Delve into the local literary history as you study Tennessee Williams, John Kennedy Toole, William Faulkner and other impressive writers with an expert.
Experience the New Orleans School of Cooking.

General Notes

You may enjoy a slower-paced program, "New Orleans at a Slower Pace: A City of History, Culture and Celebration" (#1475), or a more active, Small Group program with more free time "Jazz, Jambalaya and Joie de Vivre in New Orleans" (#21665).

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Nellie Watson

Nellie Watson, a native New Orleanian, has always had a deep passion for the local environment. She has enjoyed sharing stories with Road Scholar for over 20 years, and is also a provider for aerial flightseeing tours of the endangered wetlands. With a background in architecture and a B.F.A. in environmental design, she began her career at two large international architectural firms, had her own residential design firm, and is currently is a professional model maker for major film productions like Marvel and Disney.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Milton J. Carr View biography

Milton Carr was born in Tremé, a cultural center of New Orleans. After studying in San Diego, Milton returned home to New Orleans where he worked for Domino Sugars. During his 33 years at Domino, he became interested in sugar cane’s connections to slavery and the economic history of the city. Milton has been a licensed New Orleans guide since 2001, and is a one-of-a-kind expert on the city's unique music, history, culture and heritage.

Robin Rocque View biography

Robin Rocque's favorite city to share with guests is her hometown of New Orleans. Its diversely unique culture and musical background provides a lovely backdrop during its introduction. Robin has happily led groups in many cities and several countries. Robin has been a licensed New Orleans tour guide since 2004, and a certified international tour manager since 2011. She is an alumna of Vassar College, and recently served as a board member of a nonprofit organization that provides community support in and around New Orleans.

Dave Roberts View biography

Dave Roberts was born in New Orleans and baptized in the same church as Louis Armstrong. He received his B.B.A. from Loyola University (New Orleans) and his M.B.A. from the University of New Orleans. For many years he worked at Loyola University as the director of student finance. Dave started working as a New Orleans group leader in 1997. His expeditions are a blend of history, architecture, food, music, writers, movies, and current events.

Doreen Ketchens View biography

Doreen Ketchens is a musician whose primary interest lies in spreading the culture and traditional music of New Orleans all over the world through performances and education. As the leader of the jazz band Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans, she has been called "Queen Clarinet," "The Female Louis Armstrong," and “Lady Louie” by critics who have heard her perform. Doreen's Jazz New Orleans has represented New Orleans around the world, performing in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, South America, Russia and the U.S.

Nellie Watson View biography

Clare Pierson View biography

Clare Pierson has taught literature and creative writing to all levels of students and teachers. She has been managing editor of the Tennessee Williams Journal, a periodical dedicated to works of and about America's premier playwright. She served on the editorial staff and wrote a regular column for The Double Dealer Redux, a quarterly dedicated to writers and their writings. She continues to serve on the executive committee of the Tennessee Williams / New Orleans Literary Festival.

Angela Carll View biography

Angela Carll is a native New Orleanian who was a writer for “The Times-Picayune” for 30 years. She holds a master’s degree in English with an emphasis on Southern Literature, and is the author of “Where Writers Wrote,” a book about writers in New Orleans. She has taught at Tulane University, is a graduate of ITMI, and is a licensed New Orleans exploration leader. Angela has been a group leader for Road Scholar since 2016 and brings a wide variety of experiences to her groups.

Robin Rocque View biography

Debbie Clark View biography

Debbie Clark is a Mississippi native who has always considered New Orleans her backyard. She completed a 37-year career with a chemical company before pursuing her passion. She informally led trips to Italy, Costa Rica, Alaska, and other locations prior to becoming a certified group leader in 2016. She is licensed in New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Debbie participates in the Greater New Orleans Camera Club photo competitions, supports Make-A-Wish, and is an active member in an antique car club.

Lyndel Brauninger View biography

Lyndel Brauninger, a native New Orleanian, is a retired educator who taught in the metropolitan New Orleans area for more than 30 years. Besides leading Road Scholar groups, she leads walking “foodie” groups in the French Quarter, where she has been a licensed exploration leader since 1996. Lyndel enjoys experiencing and learning everything the Crescent City has to offer, particularly the architecture, history, music, food, and amazing theater. She is thrilled to share her passion for New Orleans with people from all over the world.

Terry Neal View biography

Terry Neal has been leading groups throughout the U.S. since 2018. Born and raised in the deep south, she loves to cook and dance, sometimes at the same time. She has over 30 years of customer service and hospitality experience, even working at a haunted plantation in Louisiana. While growing up, she traveled with her family to various locations in the U.S., but it wasn’t until her Air Force son was stationed in England that the travel bug took a deep bite.

Suggested Reading List (7 books)

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Signature City New Orleans

Program Number: 2856

Why New Orleans Matters

by Tom Piazza

In the aftermath of Katrina and the disaster that followed, promises were made, forgotten, and renewed. Now what will become of New Orleans in the years ahead? What do this proud, battered city and its people mean to America and the world? Award-winning author and longtime New Orleans resident Tom Piazza illuminates the storied culture and uncertain future of this great and neglected American metropolis by evoking the sensuous rapture of the city that gave us jazz music and Creole cooking; examining its deep undercurrents of corruption, racism, and injustice; and explaining how its people endure and transcend those conditions. And, perhaps most important, he asks us all to consider the spirit of this place and all the things it has shared with the world: its grace and beauty, resilience and soul.

Rising Tide

by John Barry

An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known -- the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.

Confederacy of Dunces

by John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel written by American novelist John Kennedy Toole, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1980, eleven years after the author's suicide. The book, published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a revealing foreword) and Toole's mother Thelma Toole, quickly became a cult classic, and later a mainstream success. Toole posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. It is now considered a canonical work of modern Southern literature, in the USA. The title derives from the epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." The story is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but slothful 30-year-old man still living with his mother in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, due to an incident early in the book, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.

Creole New Orleans Race and Americanization

by Arthur Hirsch and John Logsdon

This collection of six original essays explores the peculiar ethnic composition and history of New Orleans, which the authors persuasively argue is unique among American cities. The focus of Creole New Orleans is on the development of a colonial Franco-African culture in the city, the ways that culture was influenced by the arrival of later immigrants, and the processes that led to the eventual dominance of the Anglo-American community.

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams

This classic drama follows Blanche DuBois and the issues that arise when she moves to New Orleans to live with her sister and her husband.

All The King's Men

by Robert Penn Warren

All the King's Men traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character loosely based on Governor Huey ""Kingfish"" Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success and caught between dreams of service and an insatiable lust for power.

Life On The Mississippi

by Mark Twain

An invaluable companion to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain's inimitable portrait of 'the great Father of Waters'. Part memoir, part travelogue, it expresses the full range of Twain's literary personality, and remains the most vivid, boisterous and provocative account of the cultural and societal history of the Mississippi Valley, from 'the golden age' of steamboating to the violence wrought by the Civil War.

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Signature City New Orleans

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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