The Carousel Bar & Lounge is a unique bar located within the historic Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bar opened alongside the hotel in 1949 and remains the only bar of its kind in New Orleans.

The bar sits on a turntable that uses 2,000 motorised steel rollers to rotate the bar at a rate of one full rotation every 15 minutes. When ordering a drink from one of the pair of friendly bartenders, don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a different spot by the time your drink is ready!

Over its 70-year history, the bar is known to have attracted a number of notable authors with Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Winston Groom all known to have enjoyed a drink at the bar. The bar is also known as the birthplace of the Vieux Carré cocktail invented by bartender Walter Bergeron and is definitely worth a try.

You’ll want to get a seat at the bar to fully enjoy the experience so we recommend heading to the bar as early as possible. Single seats are easy enough to find but if you’re visiting with a group, you may find it hard to grab enough seats at the 25-seat bar.