Opened in 2002, the Astor greets guests in a vast, cream-colored lobby with vaulted ceilings, wrought-iron light fixtures, clustered seating areas, and marble floors. This being the Big Easy, people not only party, but they eat heartily. At the Astor, famed New Orleans restaurateur Dickie Brennan's Bourbon House offers Creole and seafood dishes, oyster bar and a lounge serving nearly 50 kinds of bourbon. Dickie's Gulf fish, po-boy, oyster bar selections, as well as the signature bourbon punch at the Bourbon House Lobby Bar, are the stuff of memories.

Meanwhile, guests can swim and relax in the spa on the third-floor rooftop, which provides a panoramic view of Bourbon Street. Business travelers will find plenty of room for meetings in the Astor's 25,000 square feet of conference and event space.

The Astor offers guest rooms tastefully decorated with designer fabrics and traditional New Orleans style furnishings, including poster beds with antique-style bedspreads, tile-and-marble baths, and stained-wood furniture.

Although the Astor Crowne Plaza feels and looks like an immaculate vacation resort, business types, conventioneers and leisure travelers from throughout the world flock here for that ultimate in a Big Easy experience.