Hotel Peter and Paul

The last thing you want to see in New Orleans is some kind of minimalistic, modernist-inspired “design” hotel. You’re here because this city, more than any other in America, has a character and an identity that’s uniquely its own. And so does Hotel Peter & Paul, an old Catholic school and a 19th-century church that have been transformed into a stylish and modern — but not at all modernist — boutique hotel.

Its style is eclectic, bohemian, and romantic, with both a lower-case and a capital R — there’s hardly a square inch of the Peter & Paul that’s not richly textured or appealingly weathered. Rooms in the Schoolhouse are more compact, though no less distinctive, than those in the Rectory or the Convent, and while none of them feature needless five-star extravagances, they’re more than comfortable enough.

Faubourg Marigny, the neighborhood, is one of New Orleans’s most unique, and it’s much less heavily traveled than the neighboring French Quarter or downtown — and the Bywater, the next district in the other direction, is quickly becoming one of the city’s hippest. Meanwhile, closer to home, Peter & Paul is something of a hotspot unto itself; the Elysian Bar is both a bar and a restaurant, and it promises to be a fixture on the Marigny nightlife scene.