Who hasn’t wanted to sit around in the dark, in a bar lit solely by the twinkle of red Christmas lights? Admittedly, it may not be everyone’s go-to drinking experience, but a few drinks at Snake & Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge is practically a rite of passage in New Orleans. This institution has been around for decades, surviving natural disaster and the odd calamity over its lifetime. And yet this aluminium-sided shack survives and is loved more and more with each passing year. A little off the beaten track (read: you get some respite from the Bourbon Street bustle), this dive bar’s hosted the likes of George Clooney when he passed through town, and is home to a bar cat that has seen more than its fair share of drunken debauchery.

Don’t bother looking at your watch when you settle in here. Patrons have been known to saunter in at dusk and stumble out around sunrise. Snake & Jake’s is the place for cheap beer and good times. And you can forget about asking for a cocktail. The closest Snake & Jake’s apparently comes has “possum” in the name, which is maybe best left to the locals. So stick to the Schlitz and “Laissez les bons temps rouler”!