New Orleans Travel Guide (New Orleans, Louisiana)

A resonant, romantic and extraordinary physical presence, the Mississippi River is New Orleans' lifeblood and its raison d'être. In the nineteenth century, as the port boomed, the city gradually cut itself off from the river altogether, hemming it in behind a string of warehouses and railroads, but as the importance of the port has diminished, a couple of downtown parks, plazas and riverside walks, accessible from the French Quarter and the CBD, have focused attention back onto the water-front .

Crossing Decatur Street from Jackson Square brings you to the Moon Walk , a wooden promenade where buskers serenade you as you gaze across the water. Upriver from here, long thin Woldenberg Park is strung with benches - perfect for passing an hour or two with a picnic, watching the river traffic drift by. At the upriver edge of the park, the superb Aquarium of the Americas , near the Canal Street wharf (daily from 9.30am, closing hours vary; $13, children $6.50; IMAX $7.75/$5; aquarium and IMAX $17.25/$10.50; aquarium and zoo, $17.50/$9.25), features a huge glass tunnel where visitors - rampaging infants, mostly - come face-to-face with rippling rays and ugly sawfish. There's also a swamp complete with white gators, along with an Amazonian rainforest, petting tank and IMAX theater.