I'm not sure if "cajunboy" has been in the city lately, but the French Quarter is one of the safest neighborhoods in New Orleans. The majority of crime in the city occurs in poor neighborhoods where the tourist would never venture.

Like all cities, be "aware" and you'll probably have absolutely no problems!

Not promoting anything, except having a good time in New Orleans. If you read my post it simply says have a look, and I happen to like it.....blah blah blah!

This is a great food city, and as others have said there really is no such thing as a bad meal, and frankly after moving here from NYC many moons ago, I have got caught up in the passionate foodie experience of New Orleans.

More questions as we try to plan our itinerary. A friend of mine took a Haunted History tour and liked it, and it looks like previous posters liked this company, too. I'm leaning towards Gray Line and the Historic New Orleans Walking tour. Any comments? Any info on cab rates? Just curious as to how much it will cost to go to Long Vue House. Also, is it necessary to make reservations for most of the restaurants mentioned in this thread? I'll probably have more questions tomorrow. Thanks!

As for reservations, you better attend to that. You can always cancel when you get here, but sometimes you have to wait for weeks if not longer for them.

Also, if you really want to get into one that is booked, check with the concierge, often they can perform miracles, and some restaurants keep some available purposely.

My sister and I had an excellent meal at Irene's in the FQ.

As far as tours (we went on many): We went on a cemetery tour, a city tour, and a plantation tour (San Francisco and Laura Plantations) with Cukie's Tours. She is a local, the tours were with small groups and very interesting with a lot of history; had a great time on each tour.

We went on a swamp tour with Honey Island Swamp Tours, good tour, saw several gators. Went on a Garden District Tour with Gray Line - very nice tour. Also did a Ghost Tour with Gray Line, it was very interesting and fun. Do Not go on the New Orleans Ghost Tour unless you like spending $18 to spend most of the tour sitting in the Morgue Bar. The tour guide (Randy) was fun, but most of the tour consisted of going for a walk then hurrying back to the Morgue to be hounded into buying drinks. At least this is how it was for us (others on the tour complained also).

If you take a swamp tour, just go for 1/2 day - that's pretty much long enough to see gators, nutria and herons. Most swamp tours have shuttles that will pick you up at your hotel. We went on the Gray Line city tour that included a 10 minute stop at a cemetery and got a huge amount of information about the city. We've never had a car in New Orleans, but have been always stayed at a hotel right on Bourbon St. so we were in the center of everything we wanted to see or just took a cab for the others.

To Dan ([email protected]): Not only have I visited the city recently, but I actually live here, State Street and Magazine. My comments to Sheryl about walking in the French Quarter after 5:00 p.m. were actully an attempt at sarcasm in response to what unfortunately seems to be a riduclously often asked question on this board about N.O. I know that the city has a bad reputation for crime, but for God's sake you would think some folks were under the impression we were on a par with Ramallah or Hebron on the West Bank(and I don't mean Algiers). I would have thought that sarcasm was certainly a concept not unfamiliar to someone with "tulane.edu" in their e-mail address. However, after having sat through last weekends Tulane-Army game at the Dome, I might have to question the quality of anything coming out of Tulane these days. What was up with losing to an 0-8 high school team like Army? Finally, if Sheryl does find the Quarter to be too frightening after dark, I would recommend she venture uptown for dinner at either Clancy's or my favorite local neighborhood eatery Vincent's.

Sorry, cajunboy, but I missed your attempt at sarcasm. I also hate hearing the same old "scary New Orleans" crap that's simply untrue. So you have my apologies. As for football, who cares? A good football team does not a good school make!

ttt

I guess we really needed to see your facial expresion to know it was sarcasm...ha!

Admittedly though, has not been a great year for crime....lets hope the new DA can kick some A&&, before it gets any worse. But at least the FQ is safe.