If you’ve been to New Orleans, you either love it or you hate it—there’s rarely an in-between. If you’ve never been, let’s start with the basics: It’s new-or-lins, not new-ore-leens or new-ore-lee-uns, and it’s definitely not nawlins!

There’s something about the feeling of stepping off a plane in a new destination—the rush of excitement, the hum of unfamiliar voices, the promise of adventure waiting just beyond the airport doors.