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Going to the Big Easy for the big game? These five New Orleans tours show off this great American city.

Boutique, bed and breakfast or well-known tower: there are plenty of places to rest your weary feet in the French Quarter and one for every type of person. Regardless of whether you're a Mardi Gras visitor, a family of travelers, or just looking to get away for the weekend, the perfect New Orleans French Quarter hotel is waiting for you.

While New Orleans' Tulane University receives significant press for its contributions to medicine and its popularity among applicants, the small Jesuit Loyola University New Orleans shouldn't be forgotten. Renowned for its law school, Loyola New Orleans is one of the largest Jesuit universities in the southern U.S. and features an impressive 10:1 student to faculty ratio according to The Princeton Review.

During the day, visitors, residents and their families quietly linger over cups of chicory or meander through the cobblestone streets to browse in funky local shops, all while being bathed in the historical ambience of Bourbon Street. New Orleans' French Quarter comes to life after dark, especially along this boulevard of debauchery.

You'll definitely want to leave the babies with the babysitter before you go to experience the adults-only atmosphere of public drinking, likely profanity and possible partial nudity on Bourbon Street after dark.

"Fat Tuesday" is the English translation of the French "Mardi Gras," a day of feasting and celebration before the start of the fasting and abstinence of the Catholic religion's 40 days of Lent. Also known as "Carnival," Fat Tuesday in most communities – especially New Orleans, Louisiana – encompasses parades, parties and lots and lots of feasting, especially on rich and fatty foods.