New Orleans has two enormous peaks — Carnival, ending on Mardi Gras, and Jazz Fest in late April and early May — and hotel pricing that behaves accordingly. Which means the city is at its most affordable and most itself in the months the calendar ignores. Here is where those windows are and what they are actually like.
Know the shape of the year
- Carnival season runs from Twelfth Night on 6 January to Mardi Gras, a date that moves with Easter and usually falls in February or early March.
- Hurricane season officially runs 1 June to 30 November, with the highest activity generally in August and September.
- Summer is hot and humid in a way that is difficult to overstate — highs in the low thirties Celsius with matching humidity.
- Consolation: air conditioning, afternoon thunderstorms that break the heat, and the lowest room rates of the year.
Late September to early December: the actual best window
This is the secret. The humidity finally breaks, evenings turn genuinely pleasant, the courtyards become usable again, and citrus season arrives — Louisiana satsumas at every farmers market table through November and December. Crowds are modest, rates are reasonable, and the city is in a good mood.
December deserves its own paragraph. New Orleans revived the Creole tradition of the Réveillon, the late supper after midnight Mass, as a month of special prix-fixe menus at restaurants across the city — the cheapest way to eat at the best tables you will find all year. City Park lights up for the season, carollers gather in Jackson Square, and along the river above the city, communities build and burn levee bonfires on Christmas Eve.
