Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler: In New Orleans, That Is

Credit: Tim Bieber/The Image Bank

You've said it a million times: I must go to New Orleans. No more excuses -- spring is the perfect time to go. The party-hearty mobs of Mardi Gras have sobered up and gone home, while the insufferable swelter of summer is still months away. And cheap flights are plentiful on Southwest Airlines, from nearly every corner of the country.

If you time your trip right, the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival [1] is a great way to temporarily flee the springtime frog march of student testing and kick up your heels. Now in its thirty-fifth year, Jazz Fest is a sprawling array of musical performances and workshops spread over two weekends at the local fairgrounds. Hundreds of musicians on twelve stages display styles ranging from big band to zydeco.

This year, the festival happens April 22-24 and April 28-May 1. Performers include Wilco, the Neville Brothers, McCoy Tyner, Elvis Costello, Toots and the Maytals, Ozomatli, Buckwheat Zydeco, the Dave Matthews Band, Buddy Guy, Brian Wilson, Shirley Caesar, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and many others. Bring your appetite: Sampling the food is half the fun.

Before you head out to the fairgrounds, though, get a little jet fuel in your tank at the one New Orleans institution you should not miss: Café du Monde. This twenty-four-hour coffee stand, which has been open continuously since 1862, specializes in chicory coffee and warm beignets-pillowy square doughnuts, three to a bag, coated with powdered sugar. The coffee/beignet combo accelerates you faster than a Saturn V rocket, jump-starting you for the day ahead.