Shop for your rental car on Hotwire, Expedia or Priceline.
They will tell you where the rental counters and cars are before you commit. My favorite trick-Get a price on Hotwire and then bid $1 less per day on Priceline. It usually works.

The National WWII Museum is a fantastic museum.

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/index.html

I don't know what it's looking like these days (we were there in 2009), but a drive through the Ninth Ward, devastated by Katrina, was very interesting -- we were reticent to go because we felt like we'd be intruding, but honestly, there were very few people around, and most of those that were there were constructing new homes, so it wasn't a problem at all.

We took a tour of the French Quarter with Friends of the Cabildo that was great.

http://www.friendsofthecabildo.org/

Besides that, we ate, and ate, and ate some more.

You'll be here for "king cake season" -- plenty of bakeries sell them, but the mini cakes at Butcher (sister restaurant to Cochon) are fabulous.

I think car rentals at MSY are all off-location -- you have to take a shuttle from baggage to the car rental agency you book with. There are car rental company 'help' desks in baggage,but not sure which ones have 'em and I wouldn't risk trying to rent on the spot. Book ahead!

Tons of tours/attractions to take in -- really just depends on what you're into. Food? Southern Food & Bev Museum. Architecture and history? A city/cemetery tour. Music? Frenchmen Street. List of New Orleans tours here: http://www.neworleans.com/new-orleans-tours/

Thanks, I had a feeling that they where all located by shuttle. That's going to make everything more time consuming as we are arriving rather late in the day. What

You've given me some good ideas. Like that Hotwire/Priceline tip. I got a few of the hotel rooms alone the route afterwards, by both.

I did not know that it was King crab season. Yipes, sounds great.

Will you rent a car in NOLA and return it before you leave on your driving trip. You can take a cab from the AP to the FQ for $33.00. There are car rental companies near the FQ on Canal Street. If you are taking the car with you then there will be a drop charge. The Sugar Bowl and BCS NC games are in NOLA the first part of January. It will be crowded. Let us know what your plans are. When will you be there and where are you staying.

Thanks for the tour suggestions too. I'm sure we will do one and the Museum mentioned.

Doubt if we will do the ninth ward- as we were just tornado victims last year and have seen rebuilding enough to last us at least a decade.

Here's a link to AP transportation. Stay in the FQ and walk to all the great places to visit. Stay at Le Marais, Provincial, St. Marie, Place D Armes, Iberville Suites or Monteleone.
Hotel Le Marais @ 717 Conti Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 525 - 2300.
http://www.hotellemarais.com/
Hotel Monteleone @ 214 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 523 - 3341.
http://hotelmonteleone.com/
Hotel Provincial @ 1024 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 581 - 4995.
http://www.hotelprovincial.com/
Hotel St. Marie @ 827 Toulouse Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 561-8951.
http://www.hotelstmarie.com/
Place D'Armes Hotel @ 625 Saint Ann Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 524 - 4531.
http://www.placedarmes.com/
Iberville Suites Hotel @ 910 Iberville St., New Orleans, LA 866 - 229 - 4351.
http://www.ibervillesuites.com/

Littleman, that's the same thing that has occurred to me. It may be possible to take a cab to the Country Inn & Suites French Quarter and then get the rental car a couple of day later. And we are returning flight from MSY, as well. We could bring the car back to the AP location. Our last night for this trip is at the 4 Points Sheraton near the AP. Probably another charge for returing there instead of FQ?

We will be there after the Sugar Bowl and BCS- past mid January.

Thanks for listing all the hotels you did. I almost got the Hotel St. Marie but then won a bid on Hotwire.

Hotels are all set, just have to get a car.

I agree, SO doesn't. We don't need a car in New Orleans those days. We have seen many American cities walking and this one for that amount of time- really doesn't require a car.

I lost the same disagreement fly/drive California re SF. We shall see. But he's the driver.

Remember to ride the St. Charles or Canal St. streetcar at least once.
It is possible to take Amtrak (via LA) from SF to NOL. The fare for 2 is about $400 in February. The Amtrak/ bus station is right next to the Superdome.

Thanks all. tomfuller, I didn't know that. That's less cost than the other Amtrak routes I have investigated for other trips. There are some Amtrak from Chicago to NO and from Chicago to LA too (California Zephyr). But the time element and costs are high.

We will ride a streetcar for sure.

hi jj. It is king CAKE time not king crab time. King Cakes celebrate ephiphany and have a small trinket inside. So whoever gets the trinket gets to be king

But since I am not from NOLA, who knows, maybe they have king crab too!

LOL crabcakes

One of my friends that has a condo in the Quarter uses Enterprise car rental regularly and really like them. We use them in Atlanta and not only will they pick us up, they'll deliver back also so that's also one less worry - hey, you're in NOLA and it's supposed to be 'easy', you know!!

JJ5, we were in New Orleans in March and only reserved a rental car for our last day. We took a cab from the airport to the French Quarter and spent four nights. We used the street car for the Audubon Zoo and World War II Museum. We walked everyplace else. On our last morning my husband took the Canal St. street car to an offsite Avis location and picked up a rental car. We left town, toured two plantations, had lunch and then headed back to the airport to drop off the car before our flight.

That is so funny. I had king crab on my mind. Have two huge purchases coming up for Christmas Eve seafood dinner and my mind didn't compute the cake. LOL!

ccolor, we use Enterprise often at home- not personally but my college- service for visitors. I used to have Enterprise member perks because of that. But no more. And it is a real possiblity that we'll get them this time.

wtm003- that's exactly what I think we should do. Only we would have the car for the last 5 days of the trip and then return it to airport drop off location. Our last night is at the Four Point Sheraton near the NO Airport location- so I doubt if that would be a problem.

We are going to go East past Biloxi. We saw Beauvoir about a year before Katrina. I hope it's still there.

Does anyone know if Mary Mahoney's is still in Biloxi? It was the oldest restaurant in the USA under constant operation. Before it was the USA.

I am in New Orleans now and have avoided being tempted to buy a King Cake - until NOW!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake

Note - for those travelling to NO at times other than Mardi Gras, King Cakes are available all year round at Haydel's and Gambino's bakeries.

Grcxx3- I have read about King Cakes in stories years ago- some of them- but had forgotten. And never had one.

So I will.

JJ just wanted to rent a car and then had his appetite worked up for crabcakes. Instead, hes' gonna get a large cinnamon roll with painted icing.

The only two times I have ever gained weight on a trip were at NO. But, we feasted 3 meals a day. The only light meal was at Cafe Du Monde(if you can call that light). Seriously good food though.

We don't have problems gaining weight anywhere. But on vacation we don't eat three meals. Mostly two. Or one and a large snack.

So in NO, I foresee, after Christmas and NYear's Eve and one other large party we are going to- that they will be rolling us home by the time we get on the plane to come home.

With all the walking around and dancing in New Orleans, we burn up any calories we ingest

There was a day when we were like that too, november_moon. No more. We walk on all our city trips, day to night and endlessly. We never had a car in any of 20 baseball trips, except for SF to go North. Denver was immense- up hills, down hills to the stadium 2 miles each way. It little mattered. I bet by the time you are 70, you could exist on 2 crackers and a chicken breast skinless a day. LOL!

SO especially who bikes about 15 miles a day too. Don't know what else he can do to lose it. He could be Santa Claus right now, has the perfect white beard and hair too.

Happy 2012 everyone- and thanks for all. We will make the car reservations today.

Come back to see my trip report. Late Jan. or Feb.

JJ......The Country Inn and Suites has a stay two nighta get one free deal. It's close to my favorite bars and restaurants.

Country Inn and Suites @ 315 Magazine St., New Orleans, LA 504 - 324 - 5400.

http://www.countryinns.com/neworleansla

Walk across Canal on N Peters and go W on S Peters 4/5 blocks to the corner of Lafayette and S Peters to Ernst Cafe which is over 100 years old for good happy hour. They have outdoor tables. Then go W a block to Girod and go N 2 blocks to Lucy's Bar on Tchoupitoulas for a good 4 to 7 happy hour and $2.50 beer.

Lucy's Bar @ 701 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans, LA 504 - 523 - 8995.
http://www.lucysretiredsurfers.com/

Ernst Cafe @ 600 South Peters Street, New Orleans, LA 504 - 525 - 8544.

http://www.nomenu.com/reviews/ErnstCafe.html

Walk On's is an new sports bar on Poydras a few blocks S of the Super Dome.

http://walk-ons.com/

See my NOLA food and attractions trip reports from last year here (for the latter, see the later posts for what I actually did):

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/new-orleans-foof-experience.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/new-orleans-itinerary-184065-2.cfm