New Orleans is a one-of-a-kind city—ghosts! alligators! music!—which makes it a no-brainer for a family adventure. (See our 25 reasons to visit New Orleans with kids.) The Big Easy's newest must-see kid magnet is the 23,000-square-foot Audubon Insectarium, the largest in the US devoted to the 900,000 known species of insects.

The Whitney, a historic bank-turned-hotel in downtown New Orleans (and part of the Wyndham group), has a two-night family package that includes lodging, tickets to the Insectarium, and a stop at Café du Monde for some of its famous beignets. To know whether this is a good deal for families, we need to do the math.

At $230 a night, the two-night package would cost $460, including:

• Two nights' accommodation (typically $159/night at a refundable rate or $143/night at the non-refundable rate. Let's say two nights is worth $318)
• Tickets for two adults and two kids to the Audubon Insectarium ($15 x 2 adults + $10 x 2 kids = $50)
  
• $10 gift certificate to Café du Monde (worth $10)

Deal or no deal? No deal. If you booked a two-night stay in this hotel at the higher, refundable rate and visited both the Insectarium and café, you'd spend $378—or $82 less than if you went with the package. If you booked the same stay at the non-refundable rate, you'd spend only $346—or $114 less than the price of the package.