The spirit of Mardi Gras lingers in New Orleans year round. If you’re not here during Carnival season, several options are available if you want catch some beads and don some feathers.
There are several Mardi Gras museums and exhibits around town where you can travel back in time to parades that rolled more than a hundred years ago, view vintage costumes, crowns, scepters and elaborate invitations, see how floats are built, and even try on headpieces and ball gowns and parade around like royalty.
If you like to costume, you’re in luck. The city is home to a dozen or so wonderful costume shops with everything you could possible need to put together your next Fat Tuesday, Southern Decadence or Halloween ensemble.
A number of Mardi Gras tours are offered in town as well, including one where you can come face to face with a real Mardi Gras Indian.
Mark Twain once wrote, “An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”
