21 Best Hotels in New Orleans
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New Orleans was home to some of the first luxury hotels in the country, and this legacy of high-quality hospitality is still evident today. Along with superb outposts of major hotel chains, there are dozens of beautiful independent properties that evoke the timeless nature of this historic city. The French Quarter remains a perennially desirable spot for accommodations, but the neighboring Central Business District has seen a rash of new hotels open up in recent years, and other areas like the Lower Garden District are drawing visitors for their ability to depart from the expected and bring something fresh to the scene. Here are our picks for the very best hotels in New Orleans.
Read our complete New Orleans travel guide here.
Every hotel review on this list has been written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has visited that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider properties across price points that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination, keeping design, location, service, and sustainability credentials top of mind. This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Paul Costello/The CelestinehotelThe Celestine
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Hot List 2024Built in 1791 as a private residence in the fabled French Quarter, The Celestine marks the glowing return to what its storied former tenants—the Creole chemist Antoine Peychaud, responsible for his namesake bitters and a female hotelier who ran the fashionable Maison Deville hotel (where Tennesse Williams is said to have penned A Streetcar Named Desire)—would have enjoyed. The property, named after Peychaud’s wife, was lovingly restored by local restaurateur and hotelier Robert LeBlanc (The Chloe), interior designer Sara Costello (The Chloe), and cocktail whiz Neal Bodenheimer (Cure, Cane + Table). A stylish sprawl of 10 rooms features antique furniture, four-poster beds, pencil drawings, and a trove of 19th-century oil paintings discovered in the building’s attic. Sip a Sazerac from your balcony or descend into the dimly-lit Pecyhaud’s Bar for a nip. Outside, a tropical-fringed courtyard with a babbling fountain is a delightful spot for a Ramos Gin Fizz amid the sounds of jazz music wafting from the legendary Court of Two Sisters next door. —Kate Donnelly
Virgin HotelshotelVirgin Hotels New Orleans
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Readers' Choice Awards 2022, 2023The New Orleans outpost of Virgin Hotels opened in 2021, a welcome addition to the Central Business District’s steadily-increasing portfolio of stylish, smaller hotels. The design-forward aesthetic sits somewhere between Old World and contemporary via Art Deco and Southern residential. Hotels in New Orleans know there’s a wealth of city entertainment options luring guests off property, but the Virgin Hotel makes an impressive effort to keep you on site for a while. There’s a rooftop pool (The Pool Club) that’s relatively tranquil and with its bar and classy, conservatory-style lounging areas, you’ve got a spot where you could stay all day with pleasure. Downstairs, the bar and restaurant of the Commons Club are equally commodious, with James Beard-recognized Chef Alex Harrell doing fine work.
Douglas FriedmanhotelHotel Saint Vincent
$$ | Hot List 2022 Readers' Choice Awards 2023Located in the alluring Lower Garden District, Hotel Saint Vincent has the air of a laid back country club with expansive public spaces, shade-giving palms, and many a porch on which to sip a Mint Julep as the sun dips down in the evening. A couple of bars and two lovely restaurants are great additions to one of the neighborhood’s rare hotel swimming pools. The tastefully tropical decor gives off a retro, Riviera-like ambiance. The elegance of the pool area alone makes this a hotel worth visiting; add to that the originality and visual charisma of the interior design and you’ve got one of the city’s—nay, the region’s most interesting hotels. From traditionally religious fixtures to daringly erotic paintings, there’s an elevated sultriness about the place that just works like a charm.
Courtesy The ChloehotelThe Chloe
$$ | Hot List 2021 Readers' Choice Awards 2021The prevailing image of New Orleans is one of Bourbon Street bacchanalia—shimmery beads, frozen Hurricanes, and bold after-dark choices. But the city’s deepest spirit is found in the unassuming quarters where history and culture quietly collects in mesmerizing layers as it has at The Chloe. This 14-room Victorian jewel box on St. Charles Avenue in the city’s Garden District is the imagining of restaurant hit makers LeBlanc + Smith and New Orleanian designer Sara Ruffin Costello. Here, just beyond the live oak-lined avenue, they have dressed the building’s 19th century bones in NOLA’s eclectic style: a Spanish-tiled front porch full of rocking chairs for cocktail hour, a maze of clubby and bohemian low-lit parlors that lead to the backyard bar and lap pool. Since opening day, the restaurant has become a local hot spot and chef Todd Pulsinell’s menu is equal parts new-school New Orleans (crab baked Gulf oysters and brown butter drum) and comfort (double cheeseburger and bavette steak with fries). Upstairs in the bedrooms there are turntables and records from beloved store Peaches—each album by a New Orleans artist or a musician inspired by the city—from Solange to Louis Armstrong, as well as skincare products from the homegrown Oxalis Apothecary and a fridge stocked with local beer. The lingering impression here is one of overlapping universes—old and new, subtle and daring—a grown-up distillation of New Orleans’s raffish charm.
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Christian HoranhotelPontchartrain Hotel
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023Attention to design details and value for money make The Pontchartrain Hotel a must-stay for anyone unafraid to bed down outside of the French Quarter (it's in the Lower Garden District). There is a timeless elegance to the exterior—a style that hasn’t changed since the 1940s—which is carried through to the lobby, with its crimson and emerald overtones, defiantly analogue elevators, and gilded mirrors with gold leaf accents. For unparalleled city views, head to the rooftop bar, Hot Tin, which is as busy with locals as guests (always a good sign).
Cris Molina/Kimpton HotelshotelKimpton Hotel Fontenot
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2023The former Staybridge Suites building has been transformed into a dynamic boutique space by the MARKZEFF design studio. The flamboyance of the lobby and dining/bar space is countered by the assured minimalism of the bedrooms. Clean lines, bright whites, and black wrought iron fittings make for a sleek, modern aesthetic. Soft pinks and purples provide some pop, but it’s the cane beds and tamboured armoires that hint at a detailed approach to comfort. The hotel’s crown jewel, though, is the elaborately decadent Peacock Room. With actual stuffed peacocks overlooking the tables, it’s a statement dining room. Booths and open tables, as well as bar seating, deliver an exclusive-feeling lounge atmosphere, aided by the small stage in the corner that features acoustic sets from local jazz musicians.
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Taggart Cojan Sorensen/Courtesy The Eliza JanehotelThe Eliza Jane - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019Hotels built from former 19th-century warehouses aren’t uncommon, but the Eliza Jane has enough of an interesting origin story to stand out. Named after Eliza Jane Nicholson, the first woman in the country to publish a major newspaper and who did so from this site, the buildings also housed a bitters factory—New Orleans’ being the spiritual home of the cocktail makes the latter connection especially pertinent. Both of these industries are hinted at through ambient design touches, with curated vintage pieces hand-picked from local antique stores. Couvant, the hotel’s excellent restaurant (one of the best in the city), has evolved beyond the strictly French menu of its opening to a more inclusive affair that still pays homage to brasserie classics. If you want to wander outside with your cocktail, there’s a quadrant of intimate courtyards and an Instagram-friendly water feature.
Stephen JohnsonhotelMaison de la Luz
$$ | Hot List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2021A layered, tactile, kaleidoscope like this—from pro outfit Ace—could only exist in the Big Easy. ‘New Orleans is such an amalgam of culture and languages and histories,’ says Kelly Sawdon of Atelier Ace. ‘It’s rich and complicated and somewhat messy in a beautiful way.’ The address is Ace’s second in the city, and a more intimate, flamboyant and narrative number than its more formulaic sibling across the street. A collaboration between Atelier Ace and Los Angeles-based Shamshiri Studio, it’s taken over a former City Hall annex built in 1908 and filled it with a traveling steamer trunk of curiosities. The lobby, with its twin staircases, Art Deco lights and front desk straight out of The Grand Budapest Hotel, is Golden Age Europe. The sitting room, an Egyptian adventure with hieroglyphic artwork, while the breakfast room (huge windows, parquet floors and custom-drawn wall coverings) feels like a Parisian bistro for lingering over café noir and beignets. And in the bedrooms, vivid-blue bed frames and navy-piped white linens are layered with curious details, from coffee tables etched with zodiac symbols to sculpted snake handles slithering through shower doors. Finally, a place that artfully distills the bohemian hedonism and mysticism of New Orleans in a gloriously designed jewel box.
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Four SeasonshotelFour Seasons Hotel New Orleans
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2022, 2023The formerly-derelict World Trade Center at the riverside end of Canal and Poydras Streets is enjoying a new, high-end lease of life thanks to a $530 million investment by The Four Seasons group. Consistently high standards are an expected hallmark of any Four Seasons property, and their New Orleans outpost is certainly no exception. Floor-to-ceiling windows grace both the city and river-view rooms, all replete with white oak fixtures and a stylish mid-century modern look. The white Carrara marble bathrooms are memorably chic, and above each bed there’s a delightful plaster wall relief of magnolia flowers. I’ll make the case that these are the smartest-dressed hotel staff in town, with their fitted blue tunics and Panama hats, while the Chandelier Bar has quickly become one of the most memorable watering holes in New Orleans—its showstopping eponymous chandelier a gleaming cascade of some 15,000 crystals.
Linda XiaohotelNopsi Hotel, New Orleans
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018Almost a hundred years ago, this imperious building was built to house New Orleans Public Service, the city's general utility company. Civic administration isn’t the most glamorous origin story, and while this new iteration takes a completely different path, the legacy of public service has been faithfully maintained. Everyone from the doorman to the front desk and servers never gave anything less than their fullest, friendliest commitment—at least, the people that I interacted with. Managers weren’t shy about helping with luggage and the like when lobby staff were otherwise engaged. The NOPSI is a sophisticated addition to the boutique portfolio of the city’s Central Business District. The vaulted ceilings of the lobby, marble desks, and framed NOPSI memorabilia are all remnants of a proud past, while wartime-era brass fittings and blue velvet chairs in the lobby stylishly evoke a bygone age.
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Courtesy The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria HotelhotelThe Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, is the epitome of a classic city hotel, with well over a century of history in the imposing building. The hotel’s provenance is celebrated throughout, from the Sazerac Bar, renovated to its original glory, to the must-see lobby, outfitted with gilded pillars, gleaming marble floors, and huge crystal chandeliers framing the bustling throng of guests and lobby staff.
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Courtesy Hotel Peter and PaulhotelHotel Peter & Paul
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021Of all the boutique hotels that have landed in New Orleans over the past few years, none gets into the bones of the city like this one. Beyond the heavy mint-green doors, the foyer smells of gardenias. It’s bright, airy, colorful, with a canary-yellow check-in counter and equally bright welcome. Star design team Ash NYC has revived the former 19th-century Catholic church, schoolhouse, convent, and rectory in the boho Marigny neighborhood, just northeast of the French Quarter and a walk from the sax-trumpet-clarinet licks of jazz epicenter Frenchmen Street. As with other Ash NYC hotels—The Dean, in a 1912 clergy house in Providence; the Siren, filling a Renaissance Revival building in Detroit—this place is meant to double as a destination, with sophisticated communal spaces that beg to be sat in with a chicory coffee or a Sazerac. In a city of sensory overload, Hotel Peter & Paul is the anti–Bourbon Street, where the bed linen is crisp—and a little austere, like a convent holdover—and the crowd at its Elysian Bar, brought to you by homegrown wine bar Bacchanal, is European-house-party cool.
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Courtesy The Higgins Hotel New Orleans, Curio Collection by HiltonhotelThe Higgins Hotel New Orleans, Curio Collection by Hilton
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021A complementary property to the neighboring National World War II Museum, The Higgins is hard to suss out at first. The building exterior has a stark, almost modern Gothic look, which gives way to an Art Deco and retro aesthetic inside. The lobby is huge, with a floor-to-ceiling mural looming over the reception area. Period chandeliers and tastefully arranged artifacts complete the look. Even if you're not fully transported back in time, you're aware of the serious respect the hotel gives to history.
Eric J. Nunez/Courtesy The Old No. 77 Hotel & ChandleryhotelThe Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023It’s not every day that you get to stay in a converted warehouse—but this daring, independent boutique hotel delivers that opportunity. Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery, right on the edge of the CBD, is marked by a pleasing retro sign. Exposed brickwork and dark wood floors can feel run of the mill these days, but the thoughtful lighting and rotating exhibitions elevate the interior design scheme. The hotel is also home to Compère Lapin, a vaunted Caribbean brasserie.
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Windsor Court HotelhotelThe Windsor Court
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023There’s an immediate sense of exclusivity as you step into the hotel forecourt, secluded away as it is from the surrounding downtown. Stepping into the lobby, the huge oil paintings and floral arrangements deliver an elegant, almost regal ambience that stands out in this otherwise casual city. Local doyens of society in colorful hats and seersucker suits brush past you as they meet for the afternoon tea service at Le Salon just off the main lobby. The hotel is a singular experience in New Orleans, British high society brought to the Big Easy.
hotelHotel Monteleone
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2020The old-school elegance of Hotel Monteleone's architecturally elaborate entrance leaves no doubt as to the stature of this fine property, which dates back to the 1880s. There’s a sophistication to the sculpted marble—a grandeur that continues into the busy lobby and public spaces. We booked a functional, pleasant-enough room with period touches like sweeping curtains and chandeliers. The palette features yellows and browns in regal-looking stripes, and the luxurious bed was a welcome bonus.
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Courtesy Ritz-Carlton, New OrleanshotelThe Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2020The palatial Maison Blanche building was an elegant department store for most of its existence, redeveloped in the 1980s as the New Orleans outpost of the Ritz-Carlton. Today it's a popular stop for visitors of note, from politicians to professional sports teams—one that delivers the brand's signature quality, hospitality, and luxury. The City View King Rooms are as traditionally luxurious as you might expect. Period-inspired décor is sophisticated without feeling dated—embroidered headboards, elaborate curtains, and velvet armchairs. As this is New Orleans, the hotel has its own resident jazz musician; every weekend in the Davenport Lounge, trumpeter Jeremy Davenport plays his way through the classic American songbook.
Courtesy Starwood Hotels & ResortshotelW New Orleans French Quarter
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017One of the few modern hotels in the historic French Quarter, the W stands out while still managing to hide its secrets beyond its forecourt. Out front, windows offer a peek into the sleek lobby, living room–like reception area, and restaurant within. The back patio area is the main draw for this hotel. The lovely pool itself is surrounded by a dozen cabanas—perfect for lazing on a steamy New Orleans summer day away.
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Courtesy Hotel Mazarin/Photo by J. Stephen YounghotelHotel Mazarin
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019The French Quarter does historic aesthetics well, but some more modern buildings also stand out in an appealing way, including Hotel Mazarin, which has a Mediterranean feel that complements the centuries-old Spanish architecture around it. The location, just one all-important block back from Bourbon Street, is as central as it gets, and so it’s perfect for exploring dining and nightlife as well as all the major downtown New Orleans attractions. It feels like a European-style oasis right in the thick of it.
Le PavillionhotelLe Pavillon Hotel
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020One of the grande dames of the New Orleans hotel scene along with the Roosevelt and the Monteleone, Le Pavillon opened in, and has been operational since, 1907. Its storied history is apparent in the period art that adorns the public spaces, but the hotel just finished a welcome renovation that brought the public spaces right into the 21st century. The guest rooms, which were looking tired, have seen a thoughtful modernization that means even the base-cost rooms will wrap you in comfort. And if you splash out on the honeymoon suite you can bathe in a marble bathtub that was once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, which is about as impressive as it gets in this city.
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hotelRoyal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2023Surrounded by the lurid cacophony of Bourbon Street, the hotel is a bit of an oasis with Art Deco décor, contemporary art, and seriously impressive floral arrangements. Because it's on Bourbon Street, it sees a constant parade of tourists and visitors looking to stay in the heart of the action. If it’s possible, and it’s your kind of thing, get a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street. What you'll see out there is better than anything you'll find on TV. If you’re going to stay on Bourbon, this is the place to be.
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