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Tags: Movie Set Travel / Vampire Travel / New Orleans / New Orleans Travel / Halloween Travel / → All Tags

Get Your 'Cirque du Freak' On In New Orleans

Vampires were wondering the streets of New Orleans long before Robert Pattinson was even a glimmer in his parents' eye. Today, vampire folklore is so deeply rooted in the city's history, from Anne Rice to stories of the undead walking the French Quarter, that is no surprise the movie Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant was filmed here too. The movie, in theaters now, is about Darren, a teenage boy who meets a mysterious man at a freak show and ends up leaving his normal life to become a vampire. Just in time for All Hallow's Eve, here's how to get in touch with your own inner-vampire in New Orleans.

Where to Stay:
The Dauphine Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter is exactly what most people think of when they think of New Orleans. The hotel features courtyards and balconies that overlook the quarter, luxurious accommodations and a history filled with ghosts and vampires. Best of all, even though the hotel is located in the French Quarter, they offer on-site parking and quiet rooms. There's no rowdy, bead-throwing here, just good 'ol southern hospitality. Rooms start at $106 a night.

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Tags: Bourbon Street / Barkers / Bars / Drinking Travel / Strip Clubs / → All Tags

Will You Miss Bourbon Street's Barkers When They're Gone?

Barkers are a fixture in just about every nightlife district in the world, pacing the sidewalks in front of bars, restaurants, and strip clubs in an attempt to bring in customers. Usually they're harmless, but the more aggressive touts can be downright obnoxious, putting their arms around pedestrians and doing everything in their power short of kidnapping to get them into their establishments. Some officials in New Orleans believe that their fair city has far too many aggressive barkers, and they're looking to get rid of them. As the AP points out, an ordinance was passed 25 years ago that explicitly outlaws barkers, but it has been only rarely enforced until today.

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Tags: Best Factory Tours / Best-Factory-Tours-Map / Food Travel / Louisiana Travel / → All Tags

Take Some Louisiana Flavor Home From A Tabasco Sauce Factory

Become an informed consumer while still on vacation! Check out Jaunted's newest series of the best factory tours the world over.

Put some spice in your next trip by seeing the forest preserve where the multi-plumed Tabasco bird romps and plays. Okay, that's not really how Tabasco sauce is made, but if you never visit its Louisiana factory, how will you know for sure? No wonder it made Travel and Leisure's list of the coolest factory tours in the world.

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Tags: Dessert / Food Travel / New Orleans Restaurants / New Orleans Travel / → All Tags

Eat Dessert First? Why, Thank You New Orleans

Our uncle always says, "Life is short, eat dessert first." But when a New Orleans restaurant started actually offering dessert first, with a discount, we were—what's the word?—suspicious.

There's got to be a catch in 5 Fifty 5's promotion in honor of National Dessert Month. (To begin with, where has this month been all our lives?) The restaurant inside the New Orleans Marriott, whose website boasts "New Orleans fare at its finest, if not freshest"—uh, okay then—has prepared a special menu of five $5.55 desserts, or a tasting menu of $25 for all of them. Order and eat dessert before your dinner, and you get 20 percent off your check.

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Tags: Volunteer Travel / New Orleans Travel / Relief Spark / → All Tags

Volunteer To Help Rebuild New Orleans (And Have Some Fun Too)

Even though Hurricane Katrina is no longer on the minds of most Americans, there is still a great need in New Orleans to help the needy and keep the rebuilding efforts alive. Relief Spark is a small grass-roots organization based in New Orleans that is made up of volunteers who provide first-response disaster relief services as well as much needed rebuilding services. Volunteers from around the world travel to New Orleans to lend a hand for a week, a month or a year.

These volunteers do a variety of jobs for Relief Spark like plant flowers, take care of animals, rebuild animal shelters, cook meals for the homeless and distribute supplies to the needy between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Relief Spark makes sure volunteers get to have some fun too--it is New Orleans after all! In the evenings and on weekends volunteers have a variety of entertainment options to choose from. Activities in the past have included visiting the French Quarter, rebuilding tours, local BBQs, concerts at the House of Blues, Ghost Tours, Mardi Gras parades and concerts in parks.

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Tags: Festivals / Running of the Bulls / Roller Derby / New Orleans Travel / → All Tags

The Running Of the Bulls Gone Rollergirl In New Orleans

If you’ve always wanted to join in Spain’s infamous Running of the Bulls event but are a little too scared of getting gored, New Orleans has a take on the festival that might be more up your alley.

This Saturday, July 11 at 8am, thousands of white-and-red-clad revelers will celebrate the festival of San Fermin in the French Quarter, but instead of being chased by angry bulls, they’ll be pursued by members of the Big Easy Rollegirls team, who will wield wiffle bats and be looking for weaklings. They may not have horns, but honestly, they are pretty ferocious.

The run starts at the Three Legged Dog bar on the corner of Conti and Burgandy Streets, where you can get into the Spanish spirit with some early morning sangria. The 12-minute event ends at—you guessed it—another bar, Latrobe Park’s Gazebo Café, where there will be an all-day DJ block party. The race is free; you’re just asked to bring your own white pants and shirts matched with a red cloth around the waist or neck, and additional red-and-white flair is highly encouraged.

Related Stories:
· Nola Bulls [Official Site]
· Running of the bulls leaves 5 injured in Pamplona [AP]
· Spain's Running of the Bulls Launches Feminist Debate [Jaunted]

[Photo: howieluvzus]

Tags: True-Blood-Map / True Blood / Louisiana Travel / Vampire Travel / → All Tags

True Blood Travel Guide: Another Day, Another Plantation

You've heard of Christmas in July, but we're about to get all Halloween in June this week as we prepare for the debut of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood. Any juicy suggestions or questions? Let us know.

With the premiere of the second season of True Blood around the corner on Sunday night, we're taking a break from the tourist spots to hit up an actual filming location for the show: the vampire Bill Compton's mansion.

Located in the middle of nowhere, Louisiana, the 1846 plantation home is on the Register of Historic Places and even retains most of the furniture from its golden days; even the books on the bookshelves have grown old with the home.

Although it's not open to public, the interior isn't what features in the True Blood script; it's the stately appearance of its exterior which was shot for the show. But just like most other classic, rural homes in Louisiana, this one is believed to be haunted so maybe it's best we stay out.

Related Stories:
· Yes, Virginia, there really is a Bill Compton House [Loving True Blood in Dallas]
· Historic Register Application for Roseneath [Scribd]
· Louisiana Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Chere Coen]

Tags: True-Blood-Map / True Blood / Louisiana Travel / Death / Thanatourism / Vampire Travel / → All Tags

True Blood Travel Guide: Digging Deep For Voodoo Culture

You've heard of Christmas in July, but we're about to get all Halloween in June this week as we prepare for the debut of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood. Any juicy suggestions or questions? Let us know.

There is more to Louisiana than just New Orleans' French Quarter and southern cooking, and if you look to the Louisiana of True Blood, that means visits to spooky cemeteries in the middle of the night.

If vampire Bill Compton isn't sleeping beneath your feet in the local graveyard, then Tara is undergoing some voodoo rituals in the back corner. A perfect setting for all this is Oakland Cemetery in Shreveport, founded in 1847, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts of a fine creepy history all its own.

Just outside of downtown Shreveport, in Oakland's earth rests the town's old notorious madam, Masons, nephews of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and a whole patch of victims of the yellow fever epidemics. Almost no new graves have been added in the last seventy years and it is believed that "there are nearly as many unmarked graves here as marked ones." On the ones that do still stand, voodoo rituals are not uncommon and visitors will often gifts, like little necklaces, strewn about the area. A question to any potential grave robbers: do you really want stuff associated with voodoo?

Related Stories:
· Oakland Cemetery [Official Site]
· Oakland Cemetery [Haunted LA]
· Louisiana Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cybertoad]

Tags: True-Blood-Map / True Blood / Louisiana Travel / Food Travel / Vampire Travel / New Orleans / → All Tags

True Blood Travel Guide: Eating Alligator Appetizers

You've heard of Christmas in July, but we're about to get all Halloween in June this week as we prepare for the debut of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood. Any juicy suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Although the True Blood town of Bon Temps and its local diner Merlotte's are both fictional, that doesn't mean that you can't get some good, greasy and exotic southern cooking elsewhere. We're thinking of New Orleans' French Quarter in particular, known as it is for being riddled with restaurants serving up everything from pan-fried yams to heaping helpings of crawfish étouffée.

In particular, we like Antoine's on Rue Saint Louis for their traditional and dramatic dining rooms paired with their famous "Potage alligator au sherry"—a sherry-laced alligator bisque. They've still got the usual fried oysters and lump crabmeat if alligators aren't exactly tickling your palate, but if you're not drinking blood you might as well dine on something equally creepy.

Related Stories:
· Antoine's French Quarter [Official Site]
· Louisiana Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: vidiot]

Tags: True-Blood-Map / True Blood / Louisiana Travel / Historical Travel / Vampire Travel / → All Tags

True Blood Travel Guide: Oak Alley Plantation

You've heard of Christmas in July, but we're about to get all Halloween in June this week as we prepare for the debut of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood. Any juicy suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Although sometimes it feels as though most characters on True Blood live in smarmy trailer parks, those are really just the mortals. Vampires are always portrayed in a more regal manner, like as masters of historical mansions, and this goes for the protagonist Bill Compton. To get a taste of the more refined southern life, as also seen in Interview With a Vampire, we head to Vacherie, Louisiana and to the Oak Alley Plantation.

Oak Alley is a traditional plantation house of the area, sporting imposing Doric columns and an ominous main drive sheltered by rows of oak trees. It is however, way more haunted. In addition to its being rumored as a favorite vampire hangout, visitors to Oak Alley report supernatural events like lights turning on and off, mysterious hands tugging at their clothing, visions of past owners, sightings of phantom carriages headed up the drive, and irresponsive clocks that, even after being reset, will always stop at 7:30—the time of the last owner's death.

Since the place has been around since 1837, it's bound to have seen a fair share of good and bad history, but it seems that here the dark lingers a little longer underneath the oaks. To see for yourself, the mansion is open everyday from 9am to 5pm, with $10 hourly tours. Or brave a night here, as it also functions as a bed and breakfast, serving famous mint juleps—which you'll sorely need after fretting the night away.

Related Stories:
· Oak Alley Plantation [Official Site]
· Louisiana Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: CanadaGood]

Tags: Amusement Parks / Six Flags / Theme Parks / New Orleans Travel / Katrina / → All Tags

Water Parks And Baseball Fields Await The Former NOLA Six Flags

Last week we filled you in on the current situation at Six Flags New Orleans, and now we have a little bit of news that may brighten the situation. Even though there’s all kinds of legal battles between the city and the suits at Six Flags, things may soon begin to move forward with a new project.

A member of city government recently flew out to Texas to check out a company called Big League Dreams. This developer is looking to transform the graveyard of roller coasters into an area filled with water rides and facilities for youth sports. We’re just hoping that the water park will be a good one, because the city’s residents definitely need a place to cool off in the summer.

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Tags: True-Blood-Map / True Blood / Louisiana Travel / New Orleans Travel / Vampire Travel / → All Tags

True Blood Travel Guide: Where to Score Custom Fangs

You've heard of Christmas in July, but we're about to get all Halloween in June this week as we prepare for the debut of the second season of HBO's TrueBlood. Any juicy suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Having finally kicked the ghost of Anne Rice's vampires from Louisiana, the addictive HBO drama True Blood is picking up speed partially due to the vampire-fever brought by Twilight and because of the sweaty summer scenery of hot southern swamps. If the thought of perspiring necks gets you just as hot as the muggy temperatures, then you might want to start outfitting yourself for the show's second season.

Although most people relegate the wearing of fake fangs to Halloween, the serious fans are seeking out spots for custom fang creation, and why not get them done in the heart of creepy country? In New Orleans, at the Boutique du Vampyre, customers can get their own sets of pointed pearlies for between $100 and $800.

Crafted to match your teeth color, a pair of these babies shows that you mean business. Plus, you're in a store in a New Orleans filled with vampire-related crap; that's gotta be something for the photo album.

Related Stories:
· Boutique du Vampyre [Official Site]
· New Orleans Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Love Bites]