Chapter 1 Arrival and Welcome

Individual arrivals with private car service available through Novel Travels. Check into our hotel — Hotel Peter and Paul, a beautifully restored nineteenth-century church and schoolhouse in the heart of the Marigny, steps from Frenchmen Street and featured in Karen White's Royal Street series. Meet your fellow travelers for a welcome dinner and the first of many conversations about the books that brought us here.

Chapter 2 Royal Street, the French Quarter, and Nola's Neighborhood

Begin on Royal Street at Keil's Antiques — the family-owned shop that inspired Nola's own "The Past is Never Past," which Karen White first discovered during her years at Tulane. Walk the full antiques corridor, then stop at Hotel Monteleone, one of only three hotels in the United States designated a literary landmark, where Hemingway, Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams all drank and wrote. Lunch at Muriel's on Jackson Square — Karen's personal recommendation, chosen for its resident ghosts and extraordinary food.

The afternoon belongs to the books: Faulkner House Books in Pirate's Alley, Tennessee Williams' French Quarter homes, and a tea leaf reading at Bottom of the Cup Tea Room, open since 1929. The evening ends on Frenchmen Street, in the neighborhood Nola calls home.

Chapter 3 The Garden District and Uptown

A morning in the Garden District, beginning at 2523 Prytania Street — the real house behind the Ryan family home in the series, once owned by both Anne Rice and Nicolas Cage. Walk to Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, central to Anne Rice's fiction and to New Orleans itself. Lunch at Commander's Palace, the Garden District institution one block away.

The afternoon opens up: an unhurried browse along Magazine Street and through Garden District Book Shop, followed by a visit to Karen White's own Tulane apartment on Broadway — the teacher's desk and landline phone in the novel are relics from her time there. Dinner at Antoine's, open since 1840 and one of the oldest family-run restaurants in America.

Chapter 4 Bywater, Esplanade Avenue, and the Final Chapter

The morning begins in the Marigny with café au lait at Who Dat Cafe — name-dropped by Karen White in her series notes — before heading to Esplanade Avenue, the setting of the shotgun house at the center of Book 3, and into the Bywater, Trevor's neighborhood in the novels. Lunch at Bacchanal Wine, a Bywater institution.

The afternoon brings a literary ghost tour of the French Quarter — led by a guide whose background in literature and the paranormal makes him the ideal companion for this particular group. A final browse at Faulkner House Books, and farewell drinks at Arnaud's French 75 Bar, pouring French 75s since Prohibition.

Chapter 5 Departure

A final breakfast together before individual departures. Private car service available through Novel Travels.

This itinerary is a starting point. Every Novel Travels experience includes thoughtful surprises along the way — because the best journeys always have an unexpected chapter.

Interested in joining this journey?

This tour is in development. Reach out to express your interest and be the first to know when dates are announced.