Ultimate Offbeat Guide To New Orleans

Saint Roch Chapel is one of the strangest places in New Orleans, and that’s really saying something. In 1867, when yellow fever was spreading throughout the city, Saint Roch’s minister prayed to the patron saint of good health himself, Saint Roch. To the amazement of the community, not one member of the church got sick.

Since that time, the church has become a haven for those in need of healing, and the sick come in droves to visit the chapel. It’s become a regular custom to bring your prosthetic body parts to the altar with the hope that you will be blessed by the patron saint of health. If the blessing works, the formerly-afflicted tend to journey back to leave their prosthetics for good.

Today the building is flooded with the leftover prosthetic limbs, polio braces, dental plates, and glass eyes of the supposedly healed, and has taken on more of a museum feel. You can visit the shrine on Roch Avenue in the heart of New Orleans, and don’t forget to leave a little something behind. Heck, we could all use a little healing.

Known as one of the quarter's most legit magic supply stores, you won't find any tourist junk inside Voodoo Authentica, just 100% real voodoo supplies. It's the perfect place to grab a protection talisman before visiting any of the city's haunted hot spots... and considering you're in New Orleans, you might want to buy two or each!

Run by local vampires (yes, for real) the Voodoo Authentica doubles as a Voodoo temple, and believe me when I say it's unbelievably beautiful. Pick up a handmade gris-gris bag for whatever ails you, and don’t forget to leave some coins on Yemaya’s altar for good luck.

Looking to get ahead in love, business, or life in general? At the Voodoo Museum, you can consult a voodoo priestess on what you want and what you’ll need to do to get it. Priestess Miriam doesn’t focus on “white” or “black” magic, so you don’t need worry about the Shadow Man coming after you. The temple has elements of West African tradition and Catholic tradition, so don’t be surprised to see a statue of a saint next to a voodoo doll!

Named for the most famous voodoo queen in all of New Orleans voodoo history, Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo has all of your voodoo needs covered. Just looking for a memento from your travels in the Big Easy? They've got those too. Snoop through some spell kits, mojo bags, gris gris, and talismans, there’s something here to make all your magic(k)al desires a reality.

Before you do the voodoo deed, grab a drink at the tiny little bar, which usually has a good mix of locals and tourists.

Whatever you do, don't forget to toast the Hoodoo Priestess herself, Marie Laveau, for a little extra good luck with your magical working.

You can't come to New Orleans without at least taking a walk down Bourbon Street once or twice. Infamously known as the drunkest neighborhood in the world, you're bound to see something weird while you explore. And drink. A lot.

Seriously, Bourbon Street is one of the few places in America with zero consequences for drinking alcohol in the streets.

The New Orleans Congo Square has been preserving this historic meeting place since the 1800s. During the 18th Century in New Orleans, slaves were given Sundays off, and many would gather together in places called "Place de Negres", "Place Publique", and "Circus Square" at the edge of town. Today the New Orleans Congo Square has become an important piece of NOLA history, which celebrates the city's rich jazz history, historical markets, and community.

If you're interested in learning about Voodoo, The National Historic Voodoo Museum is the perfect place to start. Visitors can discover the origins of voodoo, learn about important voodoo queens and see some of the city's old relics. They encourage questions, so don’t be afraid to ask!

Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel St Jude Shrine is the oldest standing church building in New Orleans, and was originally known as the Mortuary Chapel, as it was built as a funeral church.

From 1796 if you were born in New Orleans every summer was a plague summer, and the city was stricken by epidemic diseases. Between 1817 and 1860 there were twenty- three yellow fever epidemics, and doctors had no idea how the disease was spreading. The funeral church saw hundreds of thousands of deaths pass through it's tunnel and into St. Louis Cemetery #1, where the bodies were buried daily in massive open graves.

The museum opened its doors in 2005, and has since become one of the world's largest collection of alligator-related artifacts around. Expect to see 12-million-year-old gators from Florida, deformed alligator heads, antique postcards, vintage alligator fashion, movie posters, and even video games.

It's true that the Museum of Death is kind of a bummer, but it still remains to be one of the most-visited museums in NOLA. Dedicated to all things death, the museum isn't for the faint of heart, so if the macabre isn't your thing, you might want to sit this one out.

Without a doubt Mardi Gras is the most popular event in the city, if not the state, so any trip to NOLA would not be complete without a trip to the Germaine Wells Mardi Gras Museum.

Not only does the museum house over two dozen amazingly detailed costumes, each of them having had a significant historical importance to Mardi Gras, but the museum is free to attend during the neighboring restaurant hours, so you don't have an excuse not to go!

At the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, they have displays on gris-gris bags and other voodoo potions used for healing the sick, as well as assorted questionable medical practices and devices, old school medical tools, cosmetics, and more.

You'll leave equal parts horrified and amused... so it's a good thing there are a lot of places to get a drink nearby!

There's inspiration just about everywhere you look in New Orleans, but there's nothing more inspiring than a strong drink. The Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge in the city's French Quarter is proof-- it's been a favorite of writers pretty much since it opened in 1949. Hemingway, Faulkner, Capote, Tennessee Williams, even the guy who wrote Forrest Gump have frequented the establishment.

The Carousel Bar is located in the famed Hotel Monteleone, which is a literary landmark in its own right. It appears in works from Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, and more, and it has hosted authors like William Faulkner, John Grisham, Anne Rice, and more. Truman Capote once even claimed he was born there (which, in true Capote fashion, is an embellishment-- his mother did stay there while pregnant with him, though).

The Hotel Monteleone is one of the few long-standing, family-owned hotels in the country, having been opened in 1886.

After a night of drinking at the Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge, you can head right up to your hotel room at New Orleans most famous luxury hotel, the Hotel Monteleone... just keep an eye out for the otherworldly guests rumored to haunt the building while you're there.

Drinking in the name of education! The Museum of the American Cocktail has made it a mission to preserve the two-century old cocktail. The nonprofit is busy celebrating the "True American cultural icon", while providing resources for beginners and pros of the art of "mixology".

Take a class or seminar from the some of the world's foremost authorities in booze, and learn how to create your own beverage masterpieces. Just imagine how amazing your next party will be?

The city’s famous Garden District is where you’ll find the House of Broel, home of the Dollhouse Museum, an exhibit dedicated to frog leg farming and more antiques than you can shake a stick at.

Owned by countess and ordained minister Bonnie Broel, the classical Southern mansion was restored to antebellum state, and is often described as a giant life-sized dollhouse of its own.

One of the biggest reasons people love to visit the House of Broel has to do with a massive private collection of dollhouses kept on the second floor. Often referred to as the Dollhouse Museum, the exhibit contains over 60 painstakingly handmade homes, complete with furnishings and tiny people. The crown jewel is a 10 foot-tall palace, containing 28 impeccably decorated rooms.

Another strange exhibit you’ll find on the second floor of the mansion is an installation dedicated to frog farming. The Broel family was deeply involved in the state frog farming industry, and to this day the exhibit still contains vintage frog legs in a can, among other related froggy antiques.