PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

This is a real hidden gem, one that truly allows you to experience the city away from the typical tourist experience. The Chimes is in a less fashionable but more neighborhood-like portion of the Garden District, just 2 blocks off St. Charles Avenue. Jill and Charles Abbyad have run this B&B for 22 years, and their experience shows. The Chimes opened days after Katrina as the home base for Reuters, who are still a presence. Rooms vary in size from a generous L-shape to a two-story loft type (with a very small bathroom) to some that are downright cozy. All have antiques but are so tastefully underdecorated, particularly in contrast to other B&Bs, that they are positively Zen. An ambitious continental breakfast is served in the hosts' house. The Chimes has recently made improvements designed for the business traveler, and all we need to say is laptop + courtyard = working bliss. One recent guest, a veteran of many New Orleans hotels, spent 1 night and proclaimed that on subsequent trips she would stay nowhere else but here.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's New Orleans 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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