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For those wanting to keep a posh setting but mingle in a less-touristy part of town, book a room at the recently reopened Pontchartrain Hotel on the grand St. Charles Avenue. The plush decor mixes classic and contemporary New Orleans. In the Caribbean Room restaurant, a portrait of New Orleans rapper, Lil’ Wayne, sits among a flurry of floral paintings. Built in 1907 with 106 rooms, the hotel had many famous visitors—Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams (who, rumor has it, wrote A Streetcar Named Desire while he was a guest at the hotel).