BaltimoreRob

MY fiance and I will be in New Orleans in September for our honeymoon. This is the first visit for both of us. She's taking care of most of the wedding plans, so I'm trying to plan out our honeymoon itinerary. We're staying at the Omni and will be in town for a week.
Some of our ideas we're considering include -
swamp/plantation tour
Saints vs. Giants game
riverboat dinner
dinner at Commander's Palace
hurricane at Pat O'Brien's

Any and all comments/suggestions are welcome.

Wayne

I gather from your initial list of things to do that you are not planning to do anything very educational or cultural while you are there. I recognize that the swamp or plantation tours might be a bit educational, however. If you were looking for more of that, you could add: the aquarium, the D-Day Museum, the N.O. Museum of Art, the Louisiana history museum near the St Louis Cathedral, and possibly listening to some authentic N.O. dixieland jazz.

KBec

A week is a long time in NO. Plan on lounging in bed and reading or whatever. It is your honeymoon after all!

Definitely hit the D-Day Museum. Also try casino downtown, St. Charles St. Trolley (from Quarter to Tulane), walking and window shopping in the Quarter, a day trip to Biloxi, and look for live acts in town.

For dining Galletoire's is good (esp. for "Friday Lunch"), Mother's on Poydrus is another fun lunch place, you must eat at Emeril's NOLA (he has 2 other places there which are supposed to be good as well), K-Pauls (where "blackend" anything was born), and numberous cajun rest. (Court of Two Sisters). There are supposed to be good shrimp & crab places on Lake Pontrachain as well. As around.

Have fun!

ilovetulips

How about a walking tour of the French Quarter or the Garden District. I did this with some girlfriends many years ago and enjoyed it alot. You learn about architecture and history and it is so cool to see those stately homes in the Garden District. I would also check out Jackson Square and you can't go to NO without stopping at Cafe Du MOnde for beignets!

ChristieP

If either of you enjoy cooking, a visit to the New Orleans School of Cooking is a must! The classes are very fun, and you get a good meal out of them. Plus, their gift shop sells all sorts of wonderful spices and mixes to take home. Mmmm!

Hubby is a history buff, and we ended up spending most of a day at the D-Day Museum, which was excellent. I had wanted to do one of the Save Our Cemeteries walking tours, but we just ran out of time.

Plan to spend a night on Bourbon Street. We did at least 2 of those!

J_Correa

We spend a week in NO for our honeymoon too. It was terrific. We planned a nice leisurely trip with one main activity planned each day and then other stuff if we felt like it. There were some things we didn't get to, but we are planning to go back for our 5th anniversary in 2007.

Here are some of the things we did:
*Walking tour of St Louis No. 1 cemetery
*Wandered around the FQ.
*Took the St Charles streetcar through the garden district and wandered around there.
*Took a swamp tour
*Took a plantation tour
*Went to the aquarium
*Went on a carriage ride
*Visited a couple museums

TripleSecDelay

How romantic those suggestions are! The D-Day Museum! When I get married, I want to see a War Museum.

Rob, I'd like to ask about your Yahoo! email address. What's going on with the butt chin, boy? Major cleft?

J_Correa

Eh, romance means different things to different people.

moldyhotelsaregross

www.citysegwaytours.com offers Segway tours of NO. I've not taken the tour there, but loved it in Paris! It was one of the highlights of our trip.

BaltimoreRob

I truly appreciate your comments and suggestions. Please keep them coming.

J_Correa your list was especially helpful. I'm hoping for recommendations for swamp and plantation tour companys. Would you recommend the one(s) you used?

ChristieP, we love the idea of going to New Orleans School of Cooking. What was the cost, how much time is required, and what time of day did it begin?

TripleSecDelay, yes I have a cleft chin, but it's far from major. I'm a sales rep for a liquor distributor so I also appreciate your screen name.

Quite a few people tell us we have to go to Commander's Palace for dinner. The Fodor's guide suggests jackets for dinner. I'm sweating just thinking about wearing one the second week in September. What attire is appropriate, but still comfortable given the time of the year?

Thanks again for the feedback.

ChristieP

The NO School of Cooking has several types of classes that start throughout the day depending on what will be taught. There are lunch sessions, and afternoon sessions. Here's the website: http://www.nosoc.com/

ChristieP

Actually, here's the website with the class schedule:
http://neworleansschoolofcooking.com/index.php
There is a 10-1 class that teaches 4 items, and a 2-4 class that teaches 3 items. No classes on Sundays.

robbiegirl

I am NOT a Commanders Palace fan and with a week there, we found it totally disappointing.
A drink at Jean Lafittes Blacksmith shop is fun. Music playing.. dimly lit but we found it quite romantic.

I agree with the restaurants listed K Paul , court of two sisters, Gallatoires and Antoines..but would leave out Commanders Palace. And do NOT go there for sunday brunch.

I had a wonderful tour of the cemeteries and garden district with a woman who has a company named Hidden Treasures.

J_Correa

For our plantation tour, we went with Spinato Tours and were really happy with them. The tour was small - 10-12 people - and they picked us up at the hotel, which was nice. The guide gave us all sorts of great information on the drive out and back. Our tour was a half day tour and we visited Laura and Oak Alley plantations, joining the docent-led tours at each plantation. We had time to wander the grounds after the tours as well.

Laura Plantation was my favorite. It wasn't a spectacularly large house, but the story that goes with it is really interesting. Oak Alley was a "standard" big plantation house with the big columns and everything. The house and the grounds were beautiful. The tour was pretty good. The oaks really stole the show.

I have heard good things about Tours by Isabelle as well.

For the swamp tour, we went with Capt Nick's near Lafite in Bayou Barataria. He also picked us up at the hotel and drove us out to the marina, which was about an hour south of NO. That was great because we got to see more of the countryside. We went out on a small, flatbottomed boat with an outboard motor, down a large channel past homes, shrimp boats, and all that, and then ducked into a small channel that led us into the swamps. We drifted along through narrower and narrower waterways, saw a couple aligators, some heron, and small ground animals. We had stopped along the way to the marina to pick up sandwiches and sodas and ate them on the boat. Overall, it was a really relaxing, fun trip out.

SAnParis

I would pass on Commanders unless you do lunch (or Sunday bunch). Over-hyped, over-rated & over-priced. A week is a long time. Rather than the riverboat dinner I might instead have dinner @ Bella Luna which has a great view of the dinner. For steak, try Dickie Brennan's. Certainly go to Acme for lunch, get your palm read on Jackson Sq. & see "Showtime" !! Unless your spouse is a big Giants or Saints fan, I would skip the football. Take a trolley ride & check out the Zoo. Try Cafe Beignet for beignets & miss the crowd @ Cafe du Monde.

SAnParis

...that would be 'brunch' not bunch.

robbiegirl

Brunch there at Commanders Palace was HORRIBLE. In particular 1) we did not get seated in the location of our request 2) We were there for 1 hour and 20 minutes and the band did not come to us once 3) the food was not that great 4)we had two young waiters who stood near us and talked about what they did on Saturday night and who they went out with. We had to ask them to move. It was an awful experience and we will never go back.

travelmonkey

We did a tour with Cajun Pride back in June. They actually feed the gators from the boat. Here's their link: http://www.cajunprideswamptours.com/

Looks like they do combo tours as well. We only did the gator tour though and it was great! Our guide even fed a gator a marshmallow from his mouth!

We also did a cemetery tour and on a previous trip a Garden District tour. I would definitely ride the streetcar from the Quarter all the way to the end to see the sites.

Nola and the New Orleans School of Cooking are great! Mother's was way crowded and the food was just ok. Make reservations if you plan to go to Court of 2 Sisters. We tried to eat there on our last trip and without a reservation the wait was 1 1/2 hours!

Enjoy your trip.

J_Correa

We found that the best time to hit Cafe Du Monde was around midnight We would have dinner earlier in the evenning, wander around, check out some bars and clubs, have a few drinks, and then find ourselves wanting a snack around midnight. Cafe du Monde hit the spot. It was jumpin' but we didn't have to wait for a table.

nolagirl

Please don't let a few bad experiences related here sway you from dinner at Commander's. It is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. I often take out-of-town guests there, and just as often enjoy it with other locals, any time I get the chance! By all means, call immediately and make a reservation. Definitely explain that you are on your honeymoon and that this is your first visit to New Orleans. I would request the main dining room -- that's my favorite spot and I think the most special. (Another nice room is the garden room, but I like to sit in the main dining room.) Don't hesitate to arrive a little early and have drinks in the bar beforehand -- you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bar and it's interesting to see all the acitivity. (Jackets are not required and you will not feel out of place if you aren't wearing one. I would wear a long-sleeve button-front shirt, for example, though, rather than a golf shirt or the like.) I would recommend getting Chef Tory's tasting menu, with wine pairings, if you can afford it. (Or get it without the wine pairings -- it's cheaper that way.) It is always delicious and really allows the chef to make the most of the freshest and most special ingredients of that particular time of year. It truly allows you to see what this kitchen can accomplish. If that is priced a bit too high for your budget, Commander's has extremely reasonably priced prix fixe 3-course meals. The waiter will tell you all about it. Especially do not pass on dessert! Bread pudding souffle and strawberry shortcake (if it's in season) are 2 of my faves. Make sure you keep telling everyone that it's your honeymoon! You will have a wonderful meal to remember. If you cannot decide what to order, definitely ask your waiter for recommendations. I would not hesitate to recommend that you splurge on a Commander's dinner and then economize a bit at other meals to make up for it -- I promise the experience will be worth it! For example, I would not recommend that you go to the Court of Two Sisters: it is extremely touristy and it is not a place that locals frequent. I never take anyone there or recommend it, simply because there are so many spectacular places. I also would not recommend Antoine's or K-Paul's. These are all expensive restaurants that in my opinion pale in comparison to Commander's. (Not that you couldn't have a good meal at any of these places . . . .but my personal opinion is that Commander's is very much worth the splurge for a special occasion, whereas the other places I feel are overpriced for what they offer.) I agree with the suggestion you received to skip the riverboat dinner -- take the ride, but save the calories and money for something worthwhile. If you are big football fans it would be interesting to see a game in the Superdome, but otherwise I agree that's not a priority. The swamp and planation tours are definitely good ideas (and Laura and Oak Alley are good plantations to see, although Laura recently suffered a major fire -- they are rebuilding and I beleive still giving tours, so it might actually be very interesting to hear about what they've learned through their rebuilding efforts). Riding the streetcar from downtown down St. Charles Avenue all the way to the end of line -- or at least to Audubon Park and the wonderful Audubon Zoo -- is also a great idea. Defintiely don't miss cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde as others have suggested, and be sure to get a muffuletta for lunch one day from Central Grocery on Decatur St. (The two of you can split one -- actually, the two of you can split a half of one.) Hurricanes at Pat O's also a must -- I like to sit in the courtyard around the fountain rather than indoors. A good and very casual reasonably priced place for breakfast or lunch in the French Quarter is the New Orleans Cake Cafe on Exchange Alley -- that man bakes the best red velvet cupcakes you have ever tasted in your life! Another reasonable breakfast/lunch place is the Hotel St. Marie at the corner of Toulouse and Dauphine. Other personal favorite restaurants in the French Quarter include GW Fins, Stella!, Mr. B's, and the Bistro at the Maison de Ville. Also good are NOLA, Bayona, Muriel's, and the Palace Cafe. OK -- that's way more than my two cents! I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon and I hope you love New Orleans!!!