cawhite

I need a hotel recommendation for 1 night in N.O. We don't fly in until midnight and leave the next morning, so I hate to pay big bucks for just a few hours. On the other hand we don't want a place in a questionable neighborhood (especially with such a late arrival). It will be just me and the kids (DH is not going on this trip).

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

BudgetQueen

I would stay at the airport. The Days Inn can be a bargain, but their shuttle stops before midnight, a cab should be a short ride however. There are plenty of hotel options there. I wouldn't bother coming into downtown, if you have no plans there?

cawhite

Thanks BudgetQueen!

Correct... We have no plans other than getting to the cruise the following day. However, we may want to get a nicer hotel for the night before we leave (a week later). One that has a nice pool. I don't suppose there are any hotels with waterslides, etc. for the kids?

Thanks for any recommendations on that as well!!

BudgetQueen

You don't want to see any of New Orleans?? And priority is a pool?? The airport Hilton is very nice- I have stayed there- there may be a pool?? No water slides that I've seen.

cawhite

BudgetQueen... I didn't really explain everything. After we do the cruise we will be visiting my husband's family in Baton Rouge. I figure we'll come down to N.O. 1 or 2 days, and on the day before we leave to go home we'll stay in a hotel (since our flight out is EARLY the following day). Since my husband's family will be dropping us off, it might be nice to check into a nicer hotel (if there is hotel with a nice pool... my kids like the ones with waterfalls and slides that they have at resorts) the kids and their nephew might enjoy swimming before the family goes back to B.R.

The kids aren't interested in fancy hotels so I wouldn't spend the $$ unless there was a special "waterpark" type of pool, etc... but it sounds like there may not be any in N.O.

But I would like to find one that has breakfast included. I'll look for that next (for both hotel nights actually)!

Thanks for your help.

babs1

Maybe I'm not as well travelled as I thought, but I cannot think of any NO hotel with a pool area like you desire. Remember, you are talking city hotels. Just like you would not find that kind of set up in NYC, I don't think you will find one in NO. But the kids are just coming off a cruise, so they may be pretty easy to please. A rooftop pool, or a courtyard pool with the lush vegetation might be a good compromise. If they are familiar with NO, I'd just stay at an airport hotel w/ a pool. If they are UNfamiliar W/ NO, I'd stay in the French Qtr or close. Take a carriage ride, go to the riverwalk to see the (what else?) river and boat traffic and anything else you can squeeze in. My suggestion is to go to eat at Mulate's. Yes, it's touristy, but the kids will eat it up unless they are quite young.

cawhite

You know, babs1, a nice courtyard pool with nice vegetation would be nice!

I had no idea what the hotels were like these days as we don't go to N.O. very often.

Any recommendations of places such as this?

BudgetQueen

The Riverside Hilton has a roof pool and the Holiday Inn on Royal has an enclosed upstairs pool. I have stayed at both.

wsoxrebel

Hampton Inn-Garden District has a courtyard pool with nice chaise lounges and calming vegetation. I like this hotel because it is on the streetcar line and has free parking, good free breakfast buffet, and generous cheese and cracker buffet before dinner. Kids love the parrot near checkin.

cawhite

wsoxrebel: Sounds wonderful. I checked on their website and it says the Hampton Inn is full that night. The night is the same night as the French Quarter Fest. Is that a big night where there might be several hotels that are full?

wsoxrebel

cawhite, I am not familiar with French Quarter Fest, sorry. I see Hilton Garden Inn has a nonrefundable $63 rate with pool, which would be my next choice.

cawhite

wsoxrebel: You're not going to believe it. The Hilton Gardens (on Gravier) also says it's full that night... although there are Hilton Gardens Hotels in the Convention Center and at the airport that have availability.

I don't see the nonrefundable rate on their website. Is that where you saw it?

Thx.

wsoxrebel

ca, we mainly use Hilton to travel and I've noticed their website has been junky all week with nonsense like that.

I looked up your festival, saw it began April 8, and found HGI NET DIRECT RATE FULL PAYMENT IN ADVANCE. NON REFUNDABLE. NO CHANGES ALLOWED OR CREDITS GIVEN. $63.

wsoxrebel

And it is the HGI Airport

beachysis

Good luck with a French Quarter hotel over a festival weekend...I think this will be difficult, as we were looking in to booking a room for President's Day weekend back at the first of December, and found little availability. I don't think there is anything going on in town that weekend other than a holiday weekend! But the pool we booked does have a pool, I think (not our priority for February!): Hotel Provincial.
As for the few hours one night before the cruise, I agree with the "ariport hotel suggestion." Good luck.

cawhite

Hi everyone,

OK... I booked a hotel through Priceline. I was hoping for the Hilton Riverside with my bid, but got the N.O. Sheraton. Is this a good place?

I was originally going to book a place near the airport, but then I figured we'd want to explore N.O. a little bit the next morning before leaving for our cruise. Now we can leave the luggage at the hotel in the a.m. until we're ready to head to the cruise terminal.

So I still have a couple of questions:

Is it less expensive for us (3 people) to take an airport shuttle or a cab (we're not getting in until around midnight so I'm not sure Sheraton will have a ride for us)?

The following morning, can we take the trolley from the hotel to the terminal?

Is there a good place to eat breakfast in the area (I don't think the hotel has a breakfast included)?

I still need to book a hotel for the night before we leave to go home, but that will definitely be a hotel near the airport.

Thanks everyone!!!

BudgetQueen

Verify you have 2 beds. This hotel has a lot of King rooms. You will need a cab/shuttle from the airport, NO hotel transportation. http://www.bigeasy.com/airport-shuttle.html Cabs will have a third person charge so the shuttle may be the cheapest option. This hotel is fine, I have stayed here and across the street at the Marriott. You can take the streetcar to the ship- IF YOU PACK LIGHT and have quality rolling bags. You will need the Riverfront Street car to Julia St. No included breakfast, if of interest you can walk to Cafe du Monde= several blocks down Decatur. This will have you in the FQ area for a look, if of interest, check out a Park Service free walking tour, leaving at 9:30am, but everyone has to present in line by 9am for a name badge slot. Again on Decatur. http://www.nps.gov/jela/pphtml/activities.html

cawhite

Budget Queen... thanks so much for all for the info!!

Yes, we will take the walking tour. I've never been on that before... We've been to Cafe du Monde several times for beignets, but do they also have breakfast items (egg, cereal, etc.)? I wouldn't want my kids to ONLY eat sugar and grease for breakfast (no matter how good it is!).

I got our "last night" hotel from Priceline too last night. But I'm a little big nervous about it. It's the Four Points Sheraton in Metairie. It wasn't one of the "known" airport area Priceline hotels listed on biddingfortravel.com so I wasn't expecting that one to pop up. Also, it had a couple of poor reviews (along with some good ones) on tripadvisor.com, but then again we didn't pay much either.