Though you'd never guess it from the hype, there are two faces to this much-mythologized drag. The touristy, booze-swilled stretch spans the seven blocks from Canal to St Ann: a frat-pack cacophony of daiquiri stalls, novelty shops and dimly lit girlie bars. This enclave is best experienced after dark, when a couple of its bars and clubs - though by no means all - are worth a look, and the sheer mayhem takes on a bacchanalian life of its own. When the attraction of fighting your way through the crowds of weekending drunks starts to pall, however, it's easy to dip out again into the quieter parallel streets to regain some sort of sanity. If you do manage to make it as far as St Ann, you come to a kind of crossroads, beyond which Bourbon transforms into an appealing, predominantly gay, residential area.

Bourbon Street

• Bourbon Street

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