5 Neighborhoods New Orleans

Why it made the list: The oldest neighborhood in the city and its beating center: Spanish-Creole townhouses, wrought-iron galleries dripping with ferns, courtyards you catch in glimpses through carriageways. Beyond the Bourbon Street noise, the lower Quarter is quiet, residential and genuinely beautiful.

Why it made the list: Antebellum mansions, live oaks arching over the street and some of the finest residential architecture in the South, all reachable by the rattling St. Charles streetcar. It's leafy, hushed and made for a slow, jaw-dropping stroll.

Why it made the list: Just downriver of the Quarter, the Marigny is Creole cottages in candy colors and, along Frenchmen Street, the best concentration of live music in the city. This is where locals go to hear jazz, not the tourist strip.

Why it made the list: Further downriver, Bywater is the city's creative edge: mural-covered shotgun houses, coffee roasters, galleries and some of the most interesting cooking in town. It feels lived-in and a little off the map, which is exactly the appeal.

Why it made the list: One of the oldest Black neighborhoods in America and the cradle of New Orleans music culture, from brass bands to Mardi Gras Indians. It's the birthplace of so much of what the city is, and it wears its history openly at Congo Square and along its quiet streets.