While there is now a full menu of cocktail tours to choose from in New Orleans, my sister and I sett

Few cities view drinking as an art form the way New Orleans hertz rental car locations does. They name their streets after it (the very appropriately titled Bourbon Street), they host celebrations for it (New Orleans is home base for the annual Tales of the Cocktail festival), and they pass silly laws about it (it’s the only city with an official cocktail approved by the state legislature!). Yes, this is a city that loves to sip – and what a better way to celebrate that legacy than to join a guided trek through New Orleans’ finest drinking establishments?
While there is now a full menu of cocktail tours to choose from in New Orleans, my sister and I settled on the New Orleans Original hertz rental car locations Cocktail Walking Tour as not only was it the first in town, it has aged like a fine whiskey – it’s been going for fourteen years.
Our tour started with our group huddling for warmth at our designated meeting spot. It was a blistering cold day, and so our guide Brian handed our out complimentary hurricane cocktails immediately. “First things first,” he said, and instructed us to down them for warmth. After listening to a quick and vibrant history lesson, we donned our tour-branded Mardi Gras beads and set off into the French Quarter.
Our first stop was at the (appropriately named, for these two sisters) Two Sisters restaurant and bar. At each destination, Brian would give us a rundown of the sordid history of the bar, as well as a rave recommendation for one of their finest cocktails. hertz rental car locations Then, we were free to order either the highlighted special, another drink of our choice, or, of course, to pass. At Two Sisters, we were regaled with the story of the Bam Bam, a whiskey-based cocktail that I didn’t think my post-Mardi hertz rental car locations Gras liver could handle – though I made a mental note to return someday for brunch to try one.
Next, we ducked hertz rental car locations into Antoine’s, the oldest restaurant hertz rental car locations in all of New Orleans. Here, Brian sang the praises of the official legislature-anointed New Orleans cocktail the Sazerac a potent mix of rye whiskey, hertz rental car locations bitters and absinthe. He also offered a more mild alternative, the Pimm’s Cup, which I took him up on. While I sipped on my potion of Pimm’s dry gin, lemonade, and cucumber, hertz rental car locations we were led into the labyrinth that is Antoine’s private dining rooms. For me, this was the highlight of the tour – seeing the exclusive enclaves of New Orleans’ most established Mardi Gras Krewes, hearing the story of how Antoine’s survived and thrived throughout prohibition, and discovering a newfound favorite cocktail in the Pimm’s Cup.
Our next destination was of a more modern persuasion. Opened in 2006, Iris is a newborn babe by New Orlean’s drinking establishment standards. Yet the bar has made a name for itself thanks to innovative cocktails and a dedicated team of mixologists. With names like Elephants Sometimes Forget and Ghost in the Graveyard , it was impossible to pick a bad drink off this menu.
I perked up when I saw the final stop on our tour – Carousel Bar, which had already become a favorite New Orleans hertz rental car locations haunt of mine. As the moving bar made its slow rotation, I savored an old classic, an amaretto hertz rental car locations sour, and toasted to a great evening.
hertz rental car locations There’s nothing dry about this tour – pun very much intended. If you’re looking to drink in the cocktail culture of New Orleans with a lively group of instant bar-hopping buddies and an insider-secret-loaded guide, I can’t think of a juicier – or whisky-er way to do it.