DAY ONE | 6 p.m. Atelier Ace, the team behind Ace Hotels, opened this tribute to maximalist Southern luxury, awash in gold accents, colored marble floors and trompe l’oeil wallpaper. The typical temptation is to stay in the nearby French Quarter, but, by making this hotel your base, you’re wisely avoiding the harried swaying of the too-inebriated.

8:30 p.m. Step inside Palm&Pine, a restaurant set in an old French Quarter townhouse, and a reminder that fine dining doesn’t have to feel stuffy. Savor this fact when you dip into the pimento cheese on their Preservation Plate and when someone offers to bring over the tequila cart.

10:00 p.m. Grab a nightcap at Bar Marilou back at your hotel. Celebrate your arrival while crunching the rum- and campari-soaked ice in a citrusy Brave Margot.

DAY TWO | 9:15 a.m. Grab a coffee to start your day and walk the length of Royal Street to see the French Quarter architecture, most of which is actually Spanish; fires in the latter half of the 18th century wiped out many of the French constructions. Watch as artisans, street poets and performers begin to take up their requisite corners.

10 a.m. Make your way to the salmon-pink building that houses the venerable Brennan’s Restaurant. Enjoy the old-school hospitality and balletic waitstaff. Begin with a nutmeg-topped Brandy milk punch before ordering the eggs Sardou, a Creole breakfast of artichokes and poached eggs, draped in Hollandaise sauce. Ignore your satiety and request the Bananas Foster, invented here, for dessert. The flambé happens tableside. Reservations recommended.

12 p.m. Teeter away from the French Quarter and into Louis Armstrong Park. Take a walk around to see Congo Square, the gathering place for 17th- and 18th-century New Orleans slaves, which became a cradle for the city’s music.

12:15 p.m. Slip into the Backstreet Cultural Museum to learn the history of the city’s Mardi Gras Indians (aka Black Masking Indians), social aid and pleasure clubs and other traditions. Peer closely at the Mardi Gras Indian suits on display, and remember each bead is sewn by hand.

1:45 p.m. Take a 10-minute drive over to the Music Box Village, a cacophonous collection of interactive musical tiny houses. Each building has its own soundtrack: Open a door to elicit a squeal, step on a wooden plank to make it zing or strum your hand along a line of wind chimes.

2:30 p.m. It’s a mile walk through the Bywater neighborhood to Euclid Records, where you can lose track of time digging for new and used records, including those from New Orleans artists like Ernie K. Doe and James Booker. On the way, enjoy the walk past Creole cottages and friendly neighborhood bars.

3:30 p.m. Take a few minutes to explore the Bargain Center, a thrift store filled with weird relics, from vintage T-shirts to old Carnival costumes.