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Louisiana

New Orleans at a Slower Pace: A City of History, Culture and Celebration

Program No. 1475RJ
Discover artistry and heritage in New Orleans as you explore the city’s historic districts, learn about Cajun cooking and visit the famed National World War II Museum.

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Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Jan 14 - Jan 19, 2024
Starting at
1,999
Feb 4 - Feb 9, 2024
Starting at
1,999
Mar 3 - Mar 8, 2024
Starting at
1,999
Mar 17 - Mar 22, 2024
Starting at
1,899
Apr 14 - Apr 19, 2024
Starting at
1,999
Filling Fast!
Apr 21 - Apr 26, 2024
Starting at
1,899
May 12 - May 17, 2024
Starting at
1,999
Oct 6 - Oct 11, 2024
Starting at
2,149
Oct 13 - Oct 18, 2024
Starting at
2,149
Nov 3 - Nov 8, 2024
Starting at
2,149
Jan 12 - Jan 17, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Feb 16 - Feb 21, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Mar 16 - Mar 21, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Apr 13 - Apr 18, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Apr 27 - May 2, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Oct 5 - Oct 10, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Oct 19 - Oct 24, 2025
Starting at
2,149
Nov 9 - Nov 14, 2025
Starting at
2,149
DATES & starting prices
PRICES
Jan 14 - Jan 19, 2024
Starting at
2,479
Feb 4 - Feb 9, 2024
Starting at
2,479
Mar 3 - Mar 8, 2024
Starting at
2,479
Mar 17 - Mar 22, 2024
Starting at
2,379
Apr 14 - Apr 19, 2024
Starting at
2,479
Filling Fast!
Apr 21 - Apr 26, 2024
Starting at
2,379
May 12 - May 17, 2024
Starting at
2,479
Oct 6 - Oct 11, 2024
Starting at
2,629
Filling Fast!
Oct 13 - Oct 18, 2024
Starting at
2,629
Nov 3 - Nov 8, 2024
Starting at
2,629
Jan 12 - Jan 17, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Feb 16 - Feb 21, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Mar 16 - Mar 21, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Apr 13 - Apr 18, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Apr 27 - May 2, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Oct 5 - Oct 10, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Oct 19 - Oct 24, 2025
Starting at
2,659
Nov 9 - Nov 14, 2025
Starting at
2,659

At a Glance

New Orleans beckons with three centuries of history and culture. Become immersed in this rich heritage as expert instructors lead you on an exploration of the city’s architectural styles, literary heroes, political figures, music and food. Learn about festivals that are both self-expression and a celebration of life, from Mardi Gras to Jazz Fest. Take field trips to Lake Pontchartrain, the French Quarter, the Garden District, the Mississippi River, Congo Square and the Treme area. Other highlights include the amazing Sculpture Garden in City Park and the world class National World War II Museum.
Activity Level
Easy Going
Moderate walking up to eight blocks, flat terrain.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Hear a live jazz performance, venture into the French Quarter, and visit the National World War II Museum.
  • Admire historic New Orleans homes as you ride along historic St. Charles Avenue and walk into the Garden District.
  • Learn the tricks of Cajun and Creole cooking at a popular culinary arts school, complete with recipes for you to take home.

General Notes

You may enjoy a more active program "Signature City New Orleans" (#2856) or a more active, small-group program "Jazz, Jambalaya and Joie de Vivre in New Orleans" (#21665); both based in the French Quarter.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Brian Altobello
Brian Altobello is a native of New Orleans with a Master’s in U.S. History and 29 years of experience teaching at the high school level. He is a U.S. Army veteran and author of two books: “New Orleans Goes to War” and “Into the Shadows Furious,” a narrative on the U.S. invasion of New Georgia Island. Brian is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Social Studies at Renew Schools, a five-school charter organization in New Orleans. He is married to a travel-writing English teacher.

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

Profile Image of Brian Altobello
Brian Altobello View biography
Brian Altobello is a native of New Orleans with a Master’s in U.S. History and 29 years of experience teaching at the high school level. He is a U.S. Army veteran and author of two books: “New Orleans Goes to War” and “Into the Shadows Furious,” a narrative on the U.S. invasion of New Georgia Island. Brian is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Social Studies at Renew Schools, a five-school charter organization in New Orleans. He is married to a travel-writing English teacher.
Profile Image of Angela Carll
Angela Carll View biography
Angela Mequet 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 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.
Profile Image of Robin Rocque
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.
Profile Image of Ed Wise
Ed Wise is a professional musician with over 50 years of experience. He has toured with Al Hirt, Delbert McClinton, and the Smothers Brothers. He has performed with world-famous musicians and entertainers, including Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Vic Damone, Diahann Carroll, Don Rickles, and many more. He has worked as a staff musician for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. In 2005, Ed Wise received New Orleans Magazine’s Jazz All-Star award. Ed is on the faculty of Loyola University, where he teaches bass and music theory.
Profile Image of Nellie Watson
Nellie Watson View biography
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.
Profile Image of Mary Lynn Scheinuk
Mary Lynn Scheinuk View biography
Mary Lynn Scheinuk has lived in New Orleans her entire life, graduating from Mount Carmel Academy and the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. She worked for 35 years in advertising sales for the Times-Picayune newspaper. During that period, she was part of the retail and commercial development of New Orleans landmarks. In addition to leading groups, Mary Lynn works numerous group events and fundraisers, and assists the American Queen Steamboat Company and Viking in hospitality and registration for Mississippi river cruises.
Profile Image of Denise Swain
Denise Swain View biography
Denise Swain loves sharing the culture, climate, and curiosity of the South. She is an active community supporter, partnering with the visitors bureau to lead historic home expeditions and teaming with Land Trust to lead hikes. A passionate storyteller and researcher, Denise enables participants to observe otherwise overlooked people and spaces. She leads Road Scholar programs across Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in speech communication from North Dakota State University.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.





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