In the 10 years since Hurricane Katrina flooded most of the city after the levees collapsed, New Orleans has soared in a phoenix-like recovery. The city that loves to celebrate now boasts more hotel rooms, restaurants, green space, live music venues and transit options than before, plus hundreds of new development projects. Often topping best-city lists, in 2014 New Orleans drew 9.52 million visitors who spent $6.8 billion, the highest per-visitor spend in its history. More than 1.1 million business travelers arrived for conventions and trade shows.

A former French and Spanish colony with strong Caribbean and African accents, New Orleans is famous for its distinctive culture, food, ubiquitous music from blues and jazz to zydeco, and architecture ranging from Creole cottages and lacy Spanish-style cast iron balconies to Greek Revival mansions and shotgun houses. Forbes publisher Richard Karlgaard called the changes “the greatest turnaround of our lifetime,” as its business startup rate exceeds the national average. In a story about the biggest U.S. brain-magnets, Forbes named New Orleans the top U.S. city luring college graduates under age 25.

“Katrina became a catalyst for our reinvention and growth,” says Stephen Perry, president, New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, of the costliest storm in U.S. history. Reform-minded Mayor Mitch Landrieu, $120 billion in Federal recovery funds, billions in private aid, the resilience of residents who rebuilt plus an influx of thousands of newcomers (many of whom came to volunteer but stayed) transformed New Orleans, whose population of 384,000 reflects 79 percent of its pre-Katrina figure.

Hotels range from major chains to boutiques and small inns, many with outdoor pools due to the steamy climate. The 22,000 downtown hotel rooms cluster less than a mile from major attractions and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Some are just a few steps away, like Hilton New Orleans Riverside, which features the city’s biggest fitness facility, a 90,000-square-foot health club and air-conditioned tennis courts plus more than 130,000 square feet of event space.

New hotels include the nearby Le Méridien New Orleans, an artsy contemporary-style hotel with 20,000 square feet of meeting space, opened following a $29 million renovation and rebranding of the former W New Orleans Hotel. The city’s first Four Seasons, part of a $360 million redevelopment of the World Trade Center at the foot of Canal Street and the Mississippi River, is slated to open in 2018, New Orleans’ 300th anniversary.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, whose 1.1 million square feet of contiguous exhibit space is considered one of the biggest in the country, offers a 4,000-seat theater; a 60,000-square-foot Great Hall; and 140 meeting rooms. The center’s ongoing $90 million-plus improvement plan includes a re-imagining of its riverfront with a new hotel, a park and retail and arts venues. For an only-in-New Orleans VIP experience, business groups can strut in a memorable private parade with a brass band, arranged through the city’s One Stop Shop, or hold an event at Mardi Gras World, where most of the fanciful floats for Mardi Gras are created.

Po’ boy sandwich © Darryl Brooks | Dreamstime.com

Long revered as a dining destination for its Creole cuisine — with gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, po’ boy sandwiches, beignets and trout amandine among local specialties — New Orleans lays claim to 12 winners of the James Beard Best Chef: South award. Chefs have won every year but one from 2010 to 2015 for new restaurants like Cochon, Peche Seafood Grill and Domenica (in The Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel), while previous winners include Commander’s Palace (whose chef, Emeril Lagasse, won back in 1991) and Galatoire’s. The city boasts 1,400 restaurants — 600 more than before Katrina.

As befits its state of perpetual festivity, the city holds 130 festivals a year, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where dozens of internationally and regionally known bands perform outdoors; the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, whose Grand Tasting stars more than 100 local chefs and more than 200 winemakers in the convention center; and Mardi Gras, the two-week bacchanal.

SCENIC DRIVES

Northwest of New Orleans, wander Louisiana’s Great River Road to see the many ornate antebellum plantation mansions shaded by live oaks. Once owned by wealthy sugar, cotton and indigo planters, many of the mansions are open to tour, and some offer B&B rooms, restaurants and space for events and meetings. Oak Alley, a much-photographed white 1839 Greek Revival mansion, and Laura, a Creole plantation once owned by a French family, both reside in Vacherie. Nottoway, the largest surviving plantation home in the South, lies farther north in White Castle, 18 miles south of Baton Rouge. From New Orleans, take I-10 west to Exit 220, turn onto I-310 and follow it to Highway 48, which becomes Great River Road, or Highway 44. Bridges connect the river’s west and east banks.