Hotel Monteleone
French Quarter
Family-owned since 1886, on Royal Street, with a carousel bar that genuinely revolves. The literary history is not marketing: Faulkner, Capote and Williams all drank here.
MSY · Texas & South Central
Nonstop into New Orleans, LA
52 U.S. airports fly here without a layover, grouped by how long you'd be in the air.
New Orleans is the least American-feeling city in America, and the reason is that it spent its formative century under French and Spanish rule rather than British. The street grid, the courtyards, the Catholicism, the food and even the civil law are all downstream of that.
Stay in or near the French Quarter, but understand that Bourbon Street is six blocks of a much larger neighborhood and you can simply walk around it. The Garden District, the Marigny, and the streetcar up St. Charles are where a long weekend takes its shape.
Anything from October to May is comfortable. Summer is genuinely oppressive, and a fair number of the best kitchens close for part of it.
52 of 52 nonstop routes
Leave after work
Under 2 hours27 citysAtlanta, GA
ATL · Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport
1h 7m
Many flights a day
Delta, Southwest, Spirit, Frontier
Houston, TX
IAH · George Bush Intercontinental Airport
46m
Many flights a day
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
DFW · Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
1h 4m
Many flights a day
American, Spirit
Orlando, FL
MCO · Orlando International Airport
1h 26m
Many flights a day
Southwest, Spirit, Frontier, Breeze
Chicago, IL
ORD · Chicago O'Hare International Airport
1h 52m
Many flights a day
Houston, TX
HOU · William P. Hobby Airport
45m
Many flights a day
Southwest
Dallas, TX
DAL · Dallas Love Field
1h 1m
Many flights a day
Southwest
Austin, TX
AUS · Austin Bergstrom International Airport
1h 2m
About 6 flights a day
Charlotte, NC
CLT · Charlotte Douglas International Airport
1h 35m
About 5 flights a day
American, Spirit
Miami, FL
MIA · Miami International Airport
1h 41m
About 4 flights a day
American, Spirit
Nashville, TN
BNA · Nashville International Airport
1h 10m
About 4 flights a day
Fort Lauderdale, FL
FLL · Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport
1h 41m
About 4 flights a day
Spirit, Southwest, JetBlue
Tampa, FL
TPA · Tampa International Airport
1h 18m
About 4 flights a day
Southwest, Spirit, Breeze
Chicago, IL
MDW · Chicago Midway International Airport
1h 50m
About 3 flights a day
Southwest
St Louis, MO
STL · St. Louis Lambert International Airport
1h 23m
About 2 flights a day
Southwest
Kansas City, MO
MCI · Kansas City International Airport
1h 32m
About one a day
Southwest
Raleigh/Durham, NC
RDU · Raleigh-Durham International Airport
1h 53m
About one a day
Breeze, Spirit, Southwest
San Antonio, TX
SAT · San Antonio International Airport
1h 6m
About one a day
Southwest
Charleston, SC
CHS · Charleston International Airport
1h 34m
5 flights a week
Cancún, MX
CUN · Cancún International Airport
1h 34m
5 flights a week
Spirit, Southwest, Breeze
Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers, AR
XNA · Northwest Arkansas National Airport
1h 10m
2 flights a week
Breeze
Fort Myers, FL
RSW · Southwest Florida International Airport
1h 31m
A couple of flights a week
Breeze
SeasonalNonstops out of RSW →Jacksonville, FL
JAX · Jacksonville International Airport
1h 22m
A couple of flights a week
Breeze
SeasonalNonstops out of JAX →Cincinnati / Covington, KY
CVG · Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport
1h 42m
A couple of flights a week
Allegiant, Frontier
SeasonalNonstops out of CVG →Myrtle Beach, SC
MYR · Myrtle Beach International Airport
1h 47m
A couple of flights a week
Breeze
Savannah, GA
SAV · Savannah Hilton Head International Airport
1h 27m
A couple of flights a week
Punta Gorda, FL
PGD · Punta Gorda Airport
1h 28m
A couple of flights a week
Allegiant
SeasonalNonstops out of PGD →
Easy weekend
2 to 3 hours18 citysDenver, CO
DEN · Denver International Airport
2h 9m
Many flights a day
Southwest, United, Frontier
Washington, DC
DCA · Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
2h 19m
About 5 flights a day
New York, NY
LGA · LaGuardia Airport
2h 48m
About 4 flights a day
Delta, American, Southwest
Baltimore, MD
BWI · Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
2h 21m
About 3 flights a day
Southwest, Spirit
Newark, NJ
EWR · Newark Liberty International Airport
2h 45m
About 3 flights a day
New York, NY
JFK · John F. Kennedy International Airport
2h 46m
About 3 flights a day
Delta, JetBlue
Philadelphia, PA
PHL · Philadelphia International Airport
2h 34m
About 3 flights a day
Las Vegas, NV
LAS · Harry Reid International Airport
2h 54m
About 3 flights a day
Southwest, Spirit, Breeze
Phoenix, AZ
PHX · Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
2h 33m
About 3 flights a day
Southwest, American
Detroit, MI
DTW · Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
2h 6m
About 2 flights a day
Delta, Spirit
Dulles, VA
IAD · Washington Dulles International Airport
2h 16m
About one a day
Minneapolis, MN
MSP · Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field
2h 12m
About one a day
Delta, Sun Country
Salt Lake City, UT
SLC · Salt Lake City International Airport
2h 49m
About one a day
San Pedro Sula, HN
SAP · Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport
2h 11m
5 flights a week
Spirit
Richmond, VA
RIC · Richmond International Airport
2h 10m
2 flights a week
Breeze
Norfolk, VA
ORF · Norfolk International Airport
2h 12m
A couple of flights a week
Breeze
Palmerola, HN
XPL · Palmerola International Airport
2h 20m
A couple of flights a week
Spirit
SeasonalNonstops out of XPL →Pittsburgh, PA
PIT · Pittsburgh International Airport
2h 12m
A couple of flights a week
Breeze
Long weekend
3 to 5 hours7 citysLos Angeles, CA
LAX · Los Angeles International Airport
3h 14m
About 5 flights a day
Delta, Southwest, Spirit, Breeze
Boston, MA
BOS · Boston Logan International Airport
3h 13m
About 2 flights a day
JetBlue, Delta
Seattle, WA
SEA · Seattle–Tacoma International Airport
4h 1m
About one a day
Alaska
San Francisco, CA
SFO · San Francisco International Airport
3h 41m
About one a day
United
San Diego, CA
SAN · San Diego International Airport
3h 7m
About one a day
Southwest
Portland, OR
PDX · Portland International Airport
3h 54m
5 flights a week
Alaska
SeasonalNonstops out of PDX →New Haven, CT
HVN · Tweed New Haven Airport
3h 5m
A couple of flights a week
Avelo
SeasonalNonstops out of HVN →
Worth the extra days
5 hours and up0 citysNothing over five hours nonstop from here, which is normal for most Midwest airports. Hawaii and Alaska usually mean one connection.
Flip it: where can you fly nonstop from MSY? →
Nonstop route data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (BTS T-100), covering 2025-06..2026-05, last updated 2026-09-02. Domestic routes only. Airlines change schedules, so an advisor confirms before you book.
In New Orleans
Where to stay
The Pontchartrain Hotel
Garden District
1927, on St. Charles, with the streetcar outside the door and a rooftop bar above. Away from the Quarter, which after two nights you may want.
Hotel Peter and Paul
Marigny
A deconsecrated church, school and rectory turned into rooms. Idiosyncratic, quiet, and ten minutes on foot from Frenchmen Street.
What to do
The St. Charles streetcar
A dollar and change, thirteen miles there and back, and the best value sightseeing in the city. Sit on the left going uptown.
Frenchmen Street
Where people go for music once they have had enough of Bourbon. Three or four clubs inside two blocks, most with no cover charge.
The Garden District on foot
Antebellum houses and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. Walk it in the morning, before the heat arrives and the tour groups do.
The National WWII Museum
Rated among the best museums in the country and it takes a full half day. Not what most people come to New Orleans for, and most are glad they went.
Where to eat
Commander's Palace
The turquoise Victorian in the Garden District. Jackets at dinner, and the twenty-five-cent lunch martinis are not a myth. This kitchen launched several careers you have heard of.
Casamento's
Oysters on Magazine Street, tiled floor to ceiling, essentially unchanged in a century. Closed June through August, and Monday to Wednesday the rest of the year.
Dooky Chase's
Leah Chase's Creole kitchen in Tremé, in a room where a good deal of the civil rights movement was planned over lunch. Mostly lunch still. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Cochon
Warehouse District, Cajun, whole animal. The name means pig and they mean it.
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