OT/NOLA
- Thread starter kgilbert78
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When? With kids? I don't recommend the summer as it's hotter than Haiti down here. I've been down here for a long time now and here are a few things to consider.
Food, take your pick as this town has incredible food. Commanders Palace, Couchon's, Any of the Brennan resteraunts, Galatoire's, Emeril's....etc. For breakfeast you can hit the Ruby Slipper, Camilla Grill, or Cafe Dumonde. The list is too long and food and drinks in NOLA are the least of your worries.
You have the D-Day museum, Audobon Zoo, Aquarium, Swamp Tours, Insane fishing (onshore and off). City park has a couple museums and is a pretty gorgeous park if you fee like taking a long street car ride.
Music and nightlife, just plug into any music site and see who is playing when you are down here. Of course this week is the second week of jazz fest so it will dry up for a while after this. You'll still have a ton of choices, but many of the good local bands hit the festival circuit during the summer.
Food, take your pick as this town has incredible food. Commanders Palace, Couchon's, Any of the Brennan resteraunts, Galatoire's, Emeril's....etc. For breakfeast you can hit the Ruby Slipper, Camilla Grill, or Cafe Dumonde. The list is too long and food and drinks in NOLA are the least of your worries.
You have the D-Day museum, Audobon Zoo, Aquarium, Swamp Tours, Insane fishing (onshore and off). City park has a couple museums and is a pretty gorgeous park if you fee like taking a long street car ride.
Music and nightlife, just plug into any music site and see who is playing when you are down here. Of course this week is the second week of jazz fest so it will dry up for a while after this. You'll still have a ton of choices, but many of the good local bands hit the festival circuit during the summer.
It's a good idea to make a list of all the places you would like to go for a meal. There are so many of them, and the competition keeps most places at the top of their game.
You can get plenty of ideas from web searches.
Of course, leave room for a few wildcards as well.
And, stay away from that freaking casino.
You can get plenty of ideas from web searches.
Of course, leave room for a few wildcards as well.
And, stay away from that freaking casino.
Yes, the zoo is real nice. The WW2 museum is great if you are into war history.
No kids--but we gotta do the zoo, as my wife loves elephants. I'm planning on the WW II museum myself. Safety issues??
Elephant exhibit is actually under construction as we are members of the zoo. It may be done soon enough though. The D-Day museum is in the CBD so there really aren't any huge safety concerns. The area is now full of condos and really has been brought back to life.
I recommend you take the street car up to Audubon Park and walk through the part to get to the zoo. Great ride through uptown and the park itself is a really pretty park. 10-15 minute walk will get you to the zoo.
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Now the Marigny is tricky to be honest. You need to be cautious there late at night and really pay attention. DBA is one the better bars in the city and is right there, but just be aware of your surroundings late at night. You'll be fine during the day and early evenings, but there tends to be some activity late (12am and later) from time to time there.
We'd be closer to the river off Spain st. near the Cake Cafe. But we are also not the type to be out past 11 pm or so. We do want to go to Frenchmens St a couple of evenings and catch some jazz.
One of the best times to go to NOLA is around Christmas. I went between Christmas and New Years about 15 years ago and it was a blast. They set up Christmas lights in one of the parks. The restaurants typically have good specials because its a down time for tourism. Also, there isn't a lot of heat/humidity that time of year. Bourbon Street is still wild and crazy at that time, if you want to experience that. I recommend doing a walking tour of the Garden Disctrict, seeing the D-day museum, and trying a lot of local cuisine. Two things I wish I had done was a swamp tour and a visit to the Tabasco plantation.
Lunch at Mothers... try the Ferdi with debris. You won't regret it.
OK, the one truly obvious thing nobody has mentioned: you must stop by/at the Cafe du Monde, just off the French Quarter for beignets and cafe au lait. That’s an absolute “must”. I spent 38 years in New Orleans; there’s nowhere anybody makes beignets the way they do at the Cafe du Monde.
My then girlfriend, now wife, were just in NOLA at the beginning of the month. Ended up eloping while we were down there. It was planned, mostly. Anyway, the thing I'll recommend more than anything if you need a ride from the airport is to use Stanley from A Personal Touch Car Service. (504) 563-3930. When we went down, our B&B set us up with him, and he was great. Gave you the in's and out's of the city and the area we were staying. He gave us so many recommendations for places to eat that we have to go back because we couldn't hit them all. Our only mistake was not taking him up on his offer to be one of our witnesses at our wedding because we didn't want to bother him. He wasn't angling for a nice tip, he really wanted to be there.
I'm not gonna give you his spots, you'll have to use him to get those, but a couple places that we found on our own were Claire's Pour House - 233 Decatur St., and the Verti Marte (get the "All that Jazz") - 1201 Royal St. We tend to favor dive bar/Mom and Pop places so you know what to expect from my recommendations. A nicer place we went that had outdoor seating/live music and is a wine shop/BYO restaurant was called Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits. We had about a 30 minute wait, so we bought a bottle of wine and drank it in line, while we waited. NOLA is awesome that way.
We also visited the cemeteries, #3 on Esplanade was our favorite.
Final piece of advice is to talk to people. The people there are amazing and always willing to strike up a conversation. You meet some really great people if you do.
EDIT: Reading this thread I have more places to add to my spreadsheet of places to hit the next time we're down there.
I'm not gonna give you his spots, you'll have to use him to get those, but a couple places that we found on our own were Claire's Pour House - 233 Decatur St., and the Verti Marte (get the "All that Jazz") - 1201 Royal St. We tend to favor dive bar/Mom and Pop places so you know what to expect from my recommendations. A nicer place we went that had outdoor seating/live music and is a wine shop/BYO restaurant was called Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits. We had about a 30 minute wait, so we bought a bottle of wine and drank it in line, while we waited. NOLA is awesome that way.
We also visited the cemeteries, #3 on Esplanade was our favorite.
Final piece of advice is to talk to people. The people there are amazing and always willing to strike up a conversation. You meet some really great people if you do.
EDIT: Reading this thread I have more places to add to my spreadsheet of places to hit the next time we're down there.
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