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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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6 days

5 nights

13 meals

5B 4L 4D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

New Orleans, LA

New Orleans History, City Field Trip, Jazz Performance

New Orleans, LA

New Orleans Authors, New Orleans Music, Cooking Class

New Orleans, LA

Architecture Lecture, Garden District Walking Tour

New Orleans, LA

World War II Museum

New Orleans, LA

All About Mardi Gras, Program Concludes

New Orleans, LA

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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 trip experts

Brian Altobello

Brian Altobello is a native of New Orleans with a Master’s degree in U.S. History and 29 years of teaching experience. He is an Army veteran and author of three books, most recently “Whiskey, Women, and War: How World War I Shaped Jim Crow New Orleans” (University Press of Mississippi, 2021). Married to a travel writing teacher, Brian currently works as a curriculum specialist in the New Orleans area.

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

Brian Altobello View biography

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.

Ed Wise View biography

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wolf Kassmeier View biography

Wolf Kassmeier has enjoyed working as both a group leader and instructor since 2000, sharing time with guests in New Orleans, throughout Louisiana, and over-the-road ranging from National Parks in the West to Chicago. For approximately five years, he served onboard Amtrak trains as a regional expert. A native Nebraskan, Wolf has lived in New Orleans for over thirty years.

Brian Altobello View biography

Brian Altobello is a native of New Orleans with a master’s degree in U.S. History and 29 years of teaching experience. He is an Army veteran and author of three books, including “Whiskey, Women, and War: How World War I Shaped Jim Crow New Orleans” (University Press of Mississippi, 2021). Married to a travel writing teacher, Brian currently works as a curriculum specialist in the New Orleans area.

Wolf Kassmeier View biography

Wolf Kassmeier has enjoyed acting as both a group leader and instructor since 2000, sharing time with guests in New Orleans, throughout Louisiana, and over-the-road ranging from National Parks in the West to Chicago. For approximately five years he served onboard Amtrak trains as a regional expert. A native Nebraskan, Wolf has lived in New Orleans for over thirty years.

Clare Pierson View biography

Dave Roberts View biography

Nellie Watson View biography

Lauree Nunez View biography

Lauree Nunez is a lifelong native of New Orleans. Her career started with Road Scholar in September 1993 as an office staffer, and she progressed over time to manage all of the office functions, as well as being a group leader. In 1991, she graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a B.A. in business. Lauree's charity, Spaymart Kitten Foster, has placed over 7,000 animals over more than a decade. She owns a property management company, and lives with her husband, Derrick, and their two cats.

Suggested Reading List (7 books)

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.

Search for a Title

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

Program Number: 1475

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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