Music & Concert Tour To New Orleans

Learn the basics of Louisiana cooking at an entertaining class held at the Louisiana General Store in a converted molasses warehouse in the French Quarter. Students are shown how to create delicious creole dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, corn and crab bisque, crawfish étouffée and bread pudding. The class also reveals some of the folklore of New Orleans.

Sit in the picturesque courtyard of this historic restaurant, with original gaslights and flowing fountains, for an authentic mix of food, history and music in the French Quarter. A strolling trio plays real New Orleans Jazz while diners choose from a menu including omelettes, eggs benedict, pancakes, hash browns, sausage, bacon and grits and grillades.

Audubon Nature Institute is a family of 10 museums and parks dedicated to nature. Visit the aquarium to see penguins and sea otters and marvel at gigantic sharks. Between visiting animals as the zoo, students can cool off at the Splash Park. There is also a butterfly garden and insectarium, an IMAX theatre and centre for Research into Endangered Species.

Carnival in New Orleans is celebrated with great enthusiasm and preparations start months ahead of time. Visit the art studios of the people who create the floats, sculptures and props for the carnival in this tour, taking you backstage the Blaine Kern Studios. Students see the artists at work designing, carving, painting and building next year’s parade.

The lively grid of streets that make up the French Quarter is the city’s most touristy area, yet also its heart. It’s a sultry melting pot of French, Spanish, Italian, Caribbean, African and Southern styles that magically blends decadence and elegance. Take a stroll among the gloriously faded buildings, musicians, magicians, psychics and tap dancers.

For the chance get up close and personal with an alligator and cruise lazily along the mysterious, moss-draped bayous, take one of the many swamp and wildlife tours offered by boat captains in the watery regions around New Orleans. Observe exotic flora and fauna from deadly snakes – from a safe distance – to long-legged waterfowl, swamp deer and racoons.

Take a tour of some of the plantation homes around New Orleans to hear stories about the famous local families that built and owned them and the people that walked through their halls. Students can get a feel for the antebellum (pre-Civil War) South as they look out over rows of oak trees to the Mississippi river from the porch of a plantation home.

On this tour, students learn more about the tragic disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Visit the Ninth Ward, one of the neighbourhoods devastated by the flooding, and see an actual levee that ‘breached’. Visit the monument to Hurricane Katrina, the Make it Right houses sponsored by Brad Pitt and the Musicians Village created by Harry Connick, Jr.

Opelousas is the home of Zydeco, which uses the accordion, spoons, scrubboard, fiddle and triangle as its signature instruments. Here you can enjoy a walking tour of the city’s historic district, visit the Creole Heritage and Folklife Center, and learn about Cajun Music, Zydeco and Swamp Pop in the Opelousas Museum and Interpretative Center.

The Capital State of Louisiana, Baton Rouge is a short distance from New Orleans. Tour the Evergreen Plantation – a working sugar plantation which comprises 37 historic buildings including 22 almost intact slave cabins.  Visit the Capitol Park Museum which contains the largest collection of instruments owned by jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet and Louis Armstrong’s cornet and bugle.

Learn about Cajun Music with a visit to Lafayette. Enjoy a visit to Vermilionville Acadian Village which preserves the cultural heritage of the Acadian, Creole and Native American cultures. The visit will include a typical Acadian dance workshop. Then, learn about the history of accordion making at Martin Accordion Shop.