Step off the St. Charles streetcar into the Garden District and you step into a 19th-century daydream: block after block of grand mansions wrapped in galleries and gardens, shaded by a canopy of live oaks.
Built by wealthy Americans in the 1800s, the district is a National Historic Landmark filled with Greek Revival and Victorian homes, delicate iron-lace fences and the atmospheric Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, whose rows of above-ground tombs are a landmark sight along the way.
Architecture lovers, photographers and romantics will be in heaven, and families enjoy the shady, quiet streets as a calm counterpoint to the Quarter.
Practical tip: the whole district is free to explore on foot. Ride the streetcar down St. Charles Avenue, hop off around Washington Avenue, and wander the side streets at your own pace.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Infrogmation of New Orleans
