Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Week Long Visit in NOLA Trip Report

My husband and I just got back from a week in New Orleans--neither of us had ever been there! We like museums and learning about the history/culture of the places we visit. And good food! We are 50 and exercise a lot so we are up for lots of walking but we are in bed by 10, so not lots of late partying ☺ We enjoyed our stay—everyone we met was kind and friendly. My original plan was to be in New Orleans for 2-3 days and then drive up to Baton Rouge—see plantations and see Acadian country. For various reasons that plan changed. While we enjoyed our time in NOLA, it would have been better to stick with the original plan—something to think about for those of you planning a trip.

Lodging
We need space. My husband is a night owl and will stay up to read/watch TV—so we need a place with a separate/door between them living room/bedroom. Hotels near the French Quarter are expensive and hard to get into—and I made reservations 4 months in advance for a time when there were no festivals, etc happening. So we stayed in a VRBO at the corner of Bienville and Bourbon Streets. It is in a condo/apartment building. It has a king size bed (Yay! for two tall people this is a must), a good kitchen and a nice living room. You can hear the noise from Bourbon (to a degree) when you sit in the living room. But in the bedroom—nothing, not a peep!! And the complex itself is very quiet. The owner and apartment manager were helpful. You cannot beat the location—we walked everywhere. It’s only 2 blocks to the streetcar line and we took that twice to get places. Easy to get a cab—a hotel is around the corner. And the price is great when compared to what I could have gotten at a hotel.

http://www.vrbo.com/451009?utm_campa...m_medium=email

Restaurants for Dinner:
Save yourself time—make reservations. You can do it the day before and do just fine in the middle of the week/during non-peak times. But if you show up at 6, you might not get to eat till 8—tables fill up fast. The only odd thing is that wait staff seemed reluctant to recommend wine to match dishes. I realize that tastes are subjective but I really want to know if a dry Sauv Blanc is going to go with this dish or do I need a Chardonnay with some more weight—or even a Pinot Noir.

GW Finns—nice seafood place that is right next door to the apartment. We ate there the first night. You do need a collared shirt to eat in the dining room. DH is a t shirt guy so we ate at the bar. (and he wore collared shirts the rest of the week when we went to dinner ☺)

K Pauls: I had an amazing meal—a stuffed soft shell crab. But the service was not good—waitress did not know her wine. I would definitely go back there but it was an off night.

Nola: Great food. Amazing service team.
Palm Court Café: We wanted to hear some traditional jazz. We looked at the 8:00 show at Preservation Hall—but I wanted to sit in a chair and eat some dinner too! So we decided to come here. The food is passable and they had many wines that were ok. The music was good—fun to see old masters playing along with some younger guys who are getting started. During set breaks, the musicians hang at the bar and you can chat with them. It was fun.

Coquettes Bistro: The BEST meal we have had in a looooong time. We did the blind tasting menu with paired wines. It was fantastic. Great food, great wine. Not pretentious. This is a must and worth the cab ride to the Garden District.

Lunch
WW II Museum: This was a great lunch spot and really good considering it’s a museum. Very attentive service. We were quite impressed.

Farmer’s Market (2x): First time was a Serrano Ham and Manchego cheese sandwich from a small stand next to the big Nawlins stand. That sandwich was sooooo good. The next day—had to try the alligator po boy. And DH had alligator too. I prefer catfish ☺

Huck Finns: I had an awesome salad—The Mark Twain. That was the first good salad I had seen on a menu. I love salads and this did not disappoint.

Breakfast: There is a coffee shop on Iberville, near the apartment where we stayed, called Addiction. Get the Miss Tracy’s coffee drink—really, really good. Get there early if you want a muffin, this is not a tourist place.

Sights
We walked everywhere. We saw every street in the Quarter at least once!! We are not shoppers but there certainly are plenty of places to spend money ☺ Just looking at the pretty buildings is fun—and this was in November when there are not window boxes stuffed with blooming flowers. I will warn people of the smell—the garbage cans and the hosing of the sidewalks every morning (and this was at like 10 am, not 8am). Gads, that was not good. We walked down Bourbon street several times just for grins and people watching.

Monday
First we rode the St. Charles streetcar to see the mansions along the way. We got off before the zoo and turned around—got off at Lee Circle on the way back. It was fun. You might want to do this in the middle of the day when you need a break from walking. I had the Fodors guidebook that shows all the houses/buildings but I gave up after a while and just looked at all the details in the houses. It was fun.

WW II Museum: On the one hand, you could leave out a WW II museum—its not really specific to NOLA. On the other hand, you would be missing an amazing experience. We learned so much at this museum. It is truly comprehensive—from the sacrifices people made at home, to what it took to train/equip our troops, to the war in Africa, etc etc. It is really in depth—we learned more about the war in the Pacific than in any other museum. I am not a war history buff—I still found this extremely interesting and so well presented. We didn’t see any of the movies, just the exhibits.

Mardi Gras World: Then we hoofed it over to Mardi Gras World for a fun change of pace. This place is a must do. They let you put on costumes and take pictures. You see a fun movie and then get a piece of King Cake-yum. The tour was very good—the guide knew everything about the floats and the Krewes. It was fascinating to see the artists at work. It only takes about 30 minutes. (we only had 5 people on our tour). But it was fun and a great chance to get an up close look at the Mardi Gras floats.

Tuesday
Cate Du Monde—Mississippi:
We got in the to-go line and went up on the levee to eat/drink. It is an interesting view with all of the homeless people camped out and ships going by!! I think it might have been more interesting to sit in Jackson Square.

Cabildo:
Well, we got really lost in this museum that thoroughly covers New Orleans history from Native Americans living here before the Europeans through the 20th century. So much information!!! This is key if you really want to learn about NOLA. We spent a long time in here!!

Mint:
This was a bit of a disappointment to DH. He is a coin collector and wanted more than the few exhibits they had. There were some great coins on display but he wanted to see more about the workings of the mint.
The upstairs is a great jazz museum but one of the galleries was closed when we visited. If you are there during a performance—stop what you are doing and go watch!! They do show it on TV monitors as well so you can hear it while you look at exhibits but we should have gone in and watched the performance. I really liked the exhibit on Louis Armstrong. Just very well done with all sorts of information and old TV clips and samples from his hand written memoirs.

Cathedral
We just got a quick view—they close at 4. But it is very pretty and certainly worth a look!

Wednesday
Cemetery Tour:
We went to #1 with the Save Our Cemeteries Group. It was very interesting to learn about the burial process, and who built tombs for whom, etc. This is not a very beautiful cemetery. I think it might be better to see the one in the Garden district for beauty. But it was very informative and within walking distance, which is great.

Presbytere:
The Katrina exhibit on the first floor is incredible. It tells the story of what really happened through first hand accounts. What the rest of the world saw through the media wasn’t necessarily what happened-for better and worse. If nothing else, this exhibit will motivate you to go home and pull an emergency evacuation kit together!! It also gave a very good explanation of what happened with the levees and the toll that draining wet lands takes on the stability of the land.
The Mardi Gras museum upstairs is really something you should see first when you get to NOLA. It explains everything about the parade and the Krewes, and the balls etc etc. See this first and then you won’t walk around mumbling “now what is a super Krewe??”.

Faulkner House Bookstore: DH was hoping to find more rare books here—its really more of a funky little second hand bookstore in a cool location.

Madame Johns Legacy: I wish they had more about the architecture of the house, etc. This is the same type of house at the Laura plantation—if you are going there, no need to stop here.

Voo Doo Museum: This was actually quite interesting. Funky, dirty, dusty and interesting. A quick look to fill in some time.

Thursday
We rented a car from the Hertz office near the convention center. Give yourself plenty of time!! There are not many staff here and they do your paperwork and then go to the garage to clean the car themselves before driving it down to you!! The woman who helped us was very kind and efficient as she could be—but the system there is not good. On the flip side, it beat paying $36 to take a cab to the airport to rent a car!

Laura Plantation: This was very informative—great info on the architecture of the house as well as the family who lived here. Saw the slave cabins and learned about the relationships between slaves, plantation, and the many owners on the plantation. This place has a great gift shop.

Oak Alley Plantation: Gorgeous plantation!! Cool shade from all of the oaks. Good slave cabin exhibit. I enjoyed the house tour—it was more about the house than the families who had lived there—because it had changed hands many times.

B&C Seafood—we ate at this place for lunch and it was great. Communal tables, lots of locals. The priest for two local parishes was there with some parishoners. He took the time to talk to a table of French tourists since he spoke both languages fluently. (young guy) He chatted with some other people who had questions as well—how long he lived here (born here) etc etc. The waitresses were busy. One woman was having difficulty getting the orders from the party of French folks so she called an older woman out of the kitchen (who spoke French) and they figured it out. The older lady even got gloves and showed people how to peel/eat crawfish. I had a great catfish poboy.

All in all , this was a nice break from the city and we enjoyed being at our own pace vs. with a large tour group. (we are not bus tour people)

Friday
It was supposed to rain all day so I had saved indoor activities for last. Turned out it didn’t rain! Like I said—I would rather have stayed Thursday night in Baton Rouge and taken Friday to tour some of the Acadian country. Oh well.

Aquarium: we like aquariums. You usually learn a lot about the local rivers/oceans/waterways etc. I really wanted to learn more about swamp ecology. Unfortunately, they have lots of exhibit space on rain forests etc that are not local. And the local stuff—they have framed it all in terms of Lewis and Clark. It’s a great aquarium for kids etc but not so much for learning about local ecosystems.

Insectarium: This is a cool museum/exhibit. There are parts that are pure art and beauty, other parts that are just creepy, and lots and lots of stuff to learn. It is a true 3-D learning experience!! We liked this much better than the aquarium.

Cocktails on the Rooftop: We got cocktails to go (living in Salt Lake City, we just HAD to do this—how awesome) and sipped them on the rooftop of the apartment building (which even has a pool!) and watched the clouds turn all sorts of pink. It was a nice relaxing end to our week.