Do you hear it? The beckoning call of New Orleans from down I-10. Its sights, sounds, bites and, dare we say, smells, are always begging for a visit. And Baton Rougeans are fortunate enough to oblige—and often.

For many in the Capital City, the neighboring Crescent City is a home away from home. But with that status comes a need for fitting accommodations. And not just any hotel will do.

The boutique hotels in the stories linked below give guests a chance to live like—and alongside—locals. From a restored church and schoolhouse to the very place Tennessee Williams wrote his famed A Streetcar Named Desire, the design-forward spaces embrace the vibrancy and history of the neighborhoods they call home and offer something for just about everyone who walks through their doors.

Shared adventures are on the itinerary at New Orleans’ new Hotel Perle, a boutique hotel designed for group travel

You hear it before you see it—the iconic green steel vehicle that is the St. Charles Avenue streetcar. The oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, this postcard-perfect mode of transportation hums, squeals and clacks its way through some of the most picturesque parts of New Orleans.

Designed by Perley Thomas, an early 20th-century engineer, the solidly built St. Charles Avenue streetcars fittingly make one of their stops directly in front of the new Hotel Perle, which was named in Thomas’ honor. The three-story brick building actually served first as a hotel in 1916, only a few years before Thomas’ electric streetcars first rolled down these tracks. In 1985, the Warehouse District building was converted into offices, and its origins soon seemed long forgotten.

That is, until developer Urban Properties Real Estate set out to return the structure to its roots—but with a twist. The new Hotel Perle would be aimed at group travelers, with suites designed to allow groups to stay together and still maintain privacy.

“There were sadly not a lot of beautiful architectural details inherited from the building’s past lives, apart from the generous ceiling heights and large windows,” says Staver Gray of New York-based design firm Ward + Gray, which worked alongside New Orleans architecture firm Rome Office on the project. They created 10 multi-room suites, each with its own living room, kitchen and dining space as well as anywhere from two to seven bedrooms. As many as 14 guests can stay together in a suite, making this an ideal property for bachelor and bachelorette trips, family reunions, corporate and church retreats, and other situations when small groups might be traveling together.

Ward + Gray paid homage to New Orleans itself—with its wide range of architectural styles, rich colors and artistic influences—as the firm devised a distinctive interior look and feel for the new hotel. “We found endless inspiration in the antique shops of Magazine Street and in the cultural and artistic history of New Orleans,” says designer Christie Ward.

Within the suites, Ward + Gray layered custom pieces ranging from voodoo-inspired rugs and curved sofas to crystal chandeliers and bespoke patterned wallpapers. They also added unique locally found pieces from small shops, including Consign Consign on Magazine Street. “As a studio,” Ward explains, “we never employ a one-size-fits-all approach.”