Writing scavenger hunts is an odd job with a big bonus: a ton of travel. New Orleans is easily one of my favorite places I’ve researched, and not (just) because of those 37 snarfed beignets. The Crescent City smells like a deep-fried flower and is one big adventure waiting to happen, whether you’re on a corporate team-building scavenger hunt or wandering solo like me. Here are three of my favorite stops:
1. The Pharmacy Museum
The Pharmacy Museum is a more-than-slightly creepy wonderland of old tools and dubiously labeled bottles which once held “cures” like leeches, opium, and coca leaves. The highlight: a soda fountain that once helped customers knock back their Love Potion No. 9. Hit this sick stop on the Secrets of the French Quarter Scavenger Hunt.
2. Will Ryman’s America
This all-gold “log cabin” in the New Orleans Museum of Art might be what happened if Abe Lincoln and King Midas moved in together. Walk into Will Ryman’s America, let your eyes adjust, and you’ll start to notice trappings of the American economy painted gold—arrowheads, shackles, bullets, pills, soda tabs, phone cords, even a fireplace made of iPhones and iPads. Check out America on the New Orleans Art Museum Madness Scavenger Hunt.
3. Liuzza’s By the Track
Two longtime locals drove me to Liuzza’s by the Track, swearing by the garlic oyster po’boy. Without asking, the staff cooked up “the usual” for my friends, who like everyone else in NOLA don’t believe in that “too much of a good thing” maxim. The last thing I remember is biting into a pillowy log dripping garlic butter and stuffed with deep-fried oysters. Perfect for fueling the gang on your Grab ’n’ Go Scavenger Hunt.