The French Quarter’s New Orleans Hotel Collection

When traveling to New Orleans, or “The Big Easy,” the best way to be part of all the action is to stay right in the middle of it all, in the French Quarter.  The New Orleans Hotel Collection has five French Quarter hotels from which to choose, all having their own unique vibe.  Whether guests are looking for old world elegance, funky modern, luxury, or secluded quiet, the New Orleans Hotel Collection has the perfect accommodations.

Hotel Mazarin

Hotel Mazarin has that boutique hotel feel.  All rooms surround a brick courtyard where guests are lulled by the soothing sounds of the central fountain.  As the rooms open to the interior courtyard, the hotel is quiet and relaxing even though Bourbon Street is a half-block away.  Rooms are luxurious with dark stone floors, Oriental rugs, and dark wood furniture with gold trim.  The hotel is widely known for its spectacular buffet breakfast.  

Hotel Mazarin boasts two of New Orleans' best hotel bars, though it would be easy to miss the fact that they are actually part of the hotel.  Patrick’s Bar Vin is run by the sweetheart of the French Quarter, Patrick Van Hoorebeeck, who makes everyone who comes into his bar feel like family.  Patrick’s Bar Vin is one of only two wine bars in the cocktail sea of the French Quarter and provides a relaxing atmosphere for travelers who want to sit back and sip a nice glass of wine.  21st Amendment Bar at La Louisiane is inspired by the speakeasies of old, serving craft cocktails and entertaining with live music. 

Hotel Le Marais

Hotel Le Marais is a chic, trendy, funky, and slightly psychedelic hotel, which is appealing to a younger crowd, but works for all ages.  The lobby, Vive! bar, and outdoor pool area are bathed in purple lights at night.  Hotel Le Marais is the more modern of The New Orleans Hotel Collection’s lineup with large comfortable rooms.  While very modern, Hotel Le Marais still has a cozy feel with the intimate saltwater pool surrounded by red brick and purple lounge chairs.

Bourbon Orleans

Bourbon Orleans has a more formal feel, with an expansive, luxurious lobby.  The building has a varied historic past, having once been a convent and school, then a theater and ballroom, and also the state legislature.  Some of the rooms are balcony suites that overlook the French Quarter, with some looking onto Bourbon Street.  Bourbon Orleans has the only craft cocktail bar on Bourbon Street.  While Bourbon Street has an abundance of sugary sweet Hurricanes and Huge Ass Beers, Bourbon “O” strives to stand apart from the Bourbon Street crowd by offering New Orleans cocktails with unique and high-quality ingredients that won’t cause a headache in the morning. 

Dauphine Orleans

Dauphine Orleans is on quiet Dauphine Street one block up from Bourbon Street.  It is amazing the difference one block can make.  For travelers who want to be near the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter, but also want to be able to get away to their own little quiet sanctuary, The New Orleans Hotel Collection properties on Dauphine Street are the way to go.  Dauphine Orleans’ accommodations are split between three historic buildings, the Main House, Carriage House, and Hermann House Courtyard.  Dauphine Orleans’ bar, May Baily’s Place, is steeped in history as it was once a bordello of the red light district.

Audubon Cottages

Audubon Cottages is the smallest and most boutique of The New Orleans Hotel Collection’s French Quarter hotels.  Audubon Cottages offers seven one and two-bedroom historic Creole cottages for guests with private or semi-private courtyards.  Audubon Cottage One has the unique distinction of being the former residence of John James Audubon while he wrote his Birds of America series.  Like Dauphine Orleans, Audubon Cottages is located on the quiet Dauphine Street. 

This article first appeared in The Hotel Guide.

Thank you to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Hotel Collection for hosting our trip to New Orleans and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  For updates on what is going on in New Orleans, follow the New Orleans CVB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagramram.

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10 Top Restaurants in New Orleans

An important part of travel to New Orleans is the food.  New Orleans has some of the best food in the entire United States.  New Orleans has stayed true to its roots with some of the oldest restaurants in the country and restaurants serving traditional New Orleans food.  However, New Orleans has also remained relevant with new restaurants serving modern cuisine which complement the classic restaurants of New Orleans.  During our one week visit to New Orleans, we dined at these top restaurants in New Orleans.

Classic New Orleans Restaurants

Antoine’s Restaurant

Antoine’s Restaurant is one of New Orleans’ restaurants in the French Quarter.  Antoine’s is the oldest family-run restaurant in the United States and has been serving French-Creole dishes to residents and travelers since 1840.  Antoine’s has served New Orleans cuisine through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression.  

Antoine Alciatore emigrated from Marseilles, France.  He had apprenticed since the age of eight under the French chef Collinet at the Hotel de Noailles in Marseilles.  At the age of 18, Antoine adopted New Orleans as his home and opened a restaurant in 1840.  Antoine brought haute cuisine to New Orleans.  He was the first to serve Chicken Creole, Crayfish Etouffee, and Shrimp Remoulade and invented dishes like Crayfish Cardinal and Shrimp Mariniere.  Antoine’s son Jules, who took over the restaurant, invented a number of oyster dishes including the most famous Oysters Rockefeller.

To experience this classic and famous New Orleans restaurant on a budget, come in for a three martini lunch.  For $20.16, you can enjoy a three-course meal and $0.25 martinis.  While Antoine’s is famous for their Oysters Rockefeller, I actually preferred the charbroiled oysters that came with the lunch special.

Arnaud’s

Arnaud’s is another of New Orleans’ French Quarter restaurants that is a classic.  Arnaud’s has been serving classic Creole cuisine since 1918.  If you’re looking for a fancy or romantic night out, Arnaud’s is the place to go.  Arnaud’s has perfected the art of elegant dining with stellar cuisine.

Arnaud Cazenave’s Philosophy of Dining states in part, “Americans are prone to forget, in the ultra-rapidity and super-activity of modern life, trying to crowd eighty seconds of toil into one minute’s time, that eating should be a pleasure, not a task to get over with in a hurry.  A dinner chosen according to one’s needs, tastes and moods, well prepared and well served, is a joy to all senses and an impelling incentive to sound sleep, good health and long life.  Therefore, at least once a day, preferably in the cool and quiet of the evening, one should throw all care to the winds, relax completely and dine leisurely and well.”  Amen.

Our dinner at Antoine’s was one mouth-watering course after another.  We started with Oysters Bienville, an Arnaud’s original made with shrimp, mushrooms, green onions, herbs, and seasonings in a white wine sauce.  We also had Shrimp Arnaud, a signature dish of cold gulf shrimp marinated in tangy Creole Remoulade Sauce with horseradish.  For a sample of Arnaud’s specialties, order Veal Wohl, a three-in-one extravaganza. Veal Chantal is tender tournedos of veal sautéed and served in a wild mushroom sauce.  Arnaud’s crab cake is made with jumbo lump Louisiana crabmeat served with a white remoulade sauce.  The Crawfish O’Connor is baked in a brandy-infused classic Creole tomato based sauce.

Commander’s Palace

Commander’s Palace is another classic and famous New Orleans restaurant, but this one is in the Garden District.  Commander’s Palace was named the best New Orleans restaurant of 2015 by Gambit New Orleans.  Commander’s Palace was first opened by Emile Commander in 1893 (not 1880 as had been previously believed) and is now managed by the Brennan family.  Famous chefs like Emeril Lagasse have worked in the kitchen of Commander’s Palace.

Commander’s Palace concocts inventive cocktails like the Big Daddy, made with apple pie flavored moonshine with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.  For dinner we had the cast iron seared gulf fish with chanterelle, yellow foot, and black trumpet mushrooms, all flambéed with Cognac, grilled Tuscan kale, roasted tomatoes, and sweet onion soubise and compressed basil.  Be sure to end dinner with Commander’s Palace’s famous Creole bread pudding soufflé.

Restaurants Serving Traditional New Orleans Food

Gumbo Shop

There are certain dishes you must have while in New Orleans, and gumbo is one of them.  The Gumbo Shop is a tiny restaurant in the middle of the French Quarter that serves some of the best gumbo in the city.  (There will obviously be some who argue the best gumbo is served elsewhere in the city, but we chose the Gumbo Shop on the high recommendation of a local.)  Don’t be intimidated by the long line coming out the door.  As a couple, we were actually seated pretty quickly.  We sat out in the cute little interior courtyard and ate the locals’ favorite, chicken Andouille gumbo, as well as crawfish etouffee, all washed down with a local beer.

Parkway Bakery & Tavern

Possibly my most favorite meal in New Orleans was also a simple one.  Parkway Bakery & Tavern’s fried oyster po’boy, only served on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, is a thing of beauty.  It’s a commitment to travel to Parkway Bakery & Tavern, as it is 15 stops away from the French Quarter via the green or red line streetcar, but it is worth both the trip and the long wait in line.  The fried oysters are succulent, the freshly baked bread is perfection, and the meal goes over the top with cheese smothered fries and a bottled root beer.

Contemporary New Orleans Restaurants

Cochon Butcher

Cochon, located in the Warehouse District, is one of New Orleans’ newer restaurants, if you’re comparing to those that have been around for almost 100 years or more.  Cochon is French for pig and is a favorite ingredient of chefs Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski.  Cochon is such a popular New Orleans restaurant, the owners were able to open its more casual neighbor Cochon Butcher.  Cochon Butcher is a butcher shop, sandwich counter, and wine bar.  You get in line, order at the counter, take a number to your table, and wait for your food to be delivered.  We went to Cochon Butcher for their muffaletta.  The muffaletta has been in New Orleans for a long time, as it came to New Orleans with Italian immigrants, but as a butcher shop that makes their own meats and pickled vegetables, Cochon Butcher’s muffaletta is one of the best in the city.

La Petite Grocery

La Petite Grocery is located in a century-old building in the Garden District.  It has been named one of the best restaurants in New Orleans multiple times and celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2014.  La Petite Grocery’s Chef Justin Devillier, a fellow Californian, joined the team when the restaurant opened, was promoted to Executive Chef in 2007, and then bought the restaurant, along with his wife Mia, in 2010.  Chef Devillier puts his spin on New Orleans classics like the Turtle Bolognese and Blue Crab Beignets.  Both of these dishes are must orders.  The Turtle Bolognese is spicy, the turtle has a texture similar to ground beef, and it is served with flat noodles and a deep fried egg.  I’ll take a Blue Crab Beignet over a dessert beignet any day.  Don’t bother with the sauce, just add a little squeeze of lemon and enjoy the creamy crab inside the light, pillowy beignet.

Coquette

Another contemporary restaurant in New Orleans is Coquette, located in the Garden District and open since 2008.  Coquette serves southern cuisine made with locally sourced products.  We dined at Coquette on New Year’s Eve, so only a prix fix menu was offered at the time.  However, Coquette’s menu includes modern dishes with southern flair such as tempura gulf shrimp, red snapper ceviche, and smoked duck confit with okra.  Coquette also features an international wine list and inventive New Orleans cocktails.

Newer but Old School Style New Orleans Restaurants

The Bombay Club & Martini Bar

The Bombay Club was a French Quarter favorite, but in 2013 the owner died, the restaurant closed, and management was transferred to Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts.  The restaurant went through a renovation and reopened in December 2014, just over a week before we dined there.  The Bombay Club & Martini Bar oozes old school charm.  The vibe is rustic casual with dark wood, curtains, and leather seats.  If you can, ask for a booth.  

The restaurant features a British menu with a Cajun twist with menu items like Scotch eggs with boudin and braised collard greens (the yolk of the Scotch egg is replaced by the boudin sauce which is made with the yolk).  Of course, the bar makes a wide selection of martinis, served in old-style champagne glasses, which are accompanied by live music nightly.

One More Classic New Orleans Restaurant Coffee Stand

Café du Monde

I don’t really know that Café du Monde qualifies as a restaurant per se, but I feel like a list of places to eat in New Orleans would be incomplete without mentioning Café du Monde.  Café du Monde is New Orleans’ original French Market coffee stand which has been serving powdered sugared cloud-like beignets and chicory coffee since 1862.  You can get your beignet fix any time of day as Café du Monde is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for Christmas Day.

New Orleans is filled with top, classic, and famous restaurants, and we didn’t get to visit them all.  On our New Orleans restaurant wish list for our next trip are Mr. B’s, Galatoire’s, Drago’s, Peche, and so many more.  But this list of 10 of the top restaurant’s in New Orleans will provide you with a great mix of New Orleans restaurants to get you started on your tour of the city through food.

Thank you to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Hotel Collection for hosting our trip to New Orleans and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  For updates on what is going on in New Orleans, follow the New Orleans CVB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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5 Reasons to Celebrate the Holidays in New Orleans

On a whim last year we decided to head to New Orleans to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  It turned out to be one of the best holiday season vacations ever.  New Orleans is a fantastic city in which to celebrate the holidays.  New Orleans is always looking for an excuse to celebrate, and the holiday season is no exception.  Christmas in New Orleans is not only festive, it also lasts longer in New Orleans than other holiday destinations.  New Orleans’ New Year’s Eve is perfect for travelers who want to experience one of the country’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebrations without being packed like sardines in the crowds of New York City’s Times Square.  

New Orleans is Covered in Christmas Decorations

New Orleans lights a large Christmas tree every year in the French Market, but New Orleans’ Christmas decorations don’t just stop there.  The entire French Quarter is decked out in Christmas finery.   New Orleans’ Christmas decorations aren’t just your run-of-the-mill wreaths and lights.  Houses are decorated with Christmas crocodiles, Christmas New Orleans streetcars, voodoo-inspired decorations, and everything else you can imagine.  Even the house museums and plantations of New Orleans are decorated in era-specific Christmas decorations.

Christmas in New Orleans Lasts Longer

Christmas in New Orleans doesn’t end December 25.  Christmas in New Orleans lasts until January 6, the date of the epiphany, which means all those Christmas decorations can be enjoyed all the way through the first week of January.  This also means you can celebrate Christmas with your family at home, then hop on a plane and celebrate Christmas in one of America’s most festive destinations, The Big Easy.

Christmas in New Orleans Has its Own Dinner Menu

Restaurant menus in the city are filled with traditional New Orleans foods.  Many restaurants in New Orleans follow another food tradition by offering a special dinner menu for the Christmas season.  The Réveillon is an old Creole custom.  Reveillon means “awakening” in French and in the early 1800s was a big meal enjoyed when the family returned from midnight mass.  New Orleans revived this old tradition in the 1990s and New Orleans restaurants serve réveillon menus for a month, ending on Christmas Day. 

Réveillon menus are prix fixe and can range from traditional to high-end.  We chose to have our réveillon dinner at The Bombay Club, a cozy, dark, leather and wood restaurant that makes you feel like you’ve time traveled back about a hundred years.  The Bombay Club’s réveillon menu consisted of three courses which ended with brandy milk punch, a traditional New Orleans cocktail, and cookies, the perfect treat to leave for Santa when he comes to New Orleans.

New Orleans Has the Best Christmas Ornaments

My favorite souvenir to purchase on any vacation is Christmas ornaments for our Christmas tree.  At Christmastime, we love to hang ornaments from our travels and reminisce about all of the wonderful trips we have enjoyed together.  Some of the best Christmas ornaments can be found in New Orleans in the shops along Royal Street.  New Orleans Christmas ornaments include fleur de lis, mardi gras masks, streetcars, and voodoo dolls.  

New Orleans’ New Year’s Eve is One of the Best in the USA

While New York City’s New Year’s Eve celebration may be the most famous in the United States, New Year’s Eve in New Orleans is also a big production.  New Year’s Eve in New Orleans centers around a historic building in the French Quarter, the Jackson Brewery building, also known as Jax Brewery.  Every New Year’s Eve a statue of Baby New Year appears on the rooftop of Jax Brewery.  As the countdown to the New Year begins, a lit fleur de lis on the rooftop begins its drop.  It lands at the stroke of midnight and the New Year ignites as fireworks burst out above the Mississippi River as well as along the entire horizon surrounding New Orleans.  Even when the fireworks are over and everyone is heading back home or to the bars, New Orleans on New Year’s Eve continues to be festive with the sounds of When the Saints Come Marching In filling the streets.

We had the unique once-in-a-lifetime privilege of joining in the celebration from the top of Jax Brewery, but there are multiple places to celebrate New Year’s Eve in New Orleans.  Crowds gather in Jackson Square and along Decatur Street to watch the drop of the fleur de lis.  A slightly less crowded place to join the festivities is the Moon Walk, a promenade that hugs the banks of the Mississippi River behind Jax Brewery.  This is a great place to both watch the fleur de lis drop and see the fireworks.  We were also told by a local that another place to enjoy New Year’s Eve fireworks in New Orleans is from the Westin parking garage, though we haven’t tested this for ourselves. 

If you’re looking for a memorable holiday travel destination, New Orleans is the place to be.

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Spooky New Orleans: Cemetery Tours

I love cemeteries and whenever we see cemeteries when we travel, we always stop to explore.  New Orleans’ cemeteries are famous for their history, beauty, and uniqueness.  We joined two New Orleans cemetery tours to learn why New Orleans’ cemeteries are so unique.

Our first New Orleans cemetery tour was a combined tour that visited both the 1833 Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 and the surrounding Garden District.  The 1833 Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is the prettiest of the cemeteries near the French Quarter.  The combination of above-ground tombs, cracked stone, and green overgrowth make the cemetery both photogenic and spooky.

New Orleans’ cemeteries aren’t filled with above-ground tombs just because they're pretty.  When the residents of New Orleans tried to dig graves in the ground, they would hit water and have to drill holes in the coffins, put them in water, and hope it didn’t rain.  New Orleans gets around five feet of rain a year.  If it rained, the coffins could potentially resurface.

One way to solve this problem would be to bury the dead on higher ground, but they didn’t want to use high ground for cemeteries as they wanted to use those areas, like the French Quarter and Uptown, to live.  The solution was to use above-ground tombs.

The tombs found in New Orleans cemeteries are family tombs.  Historically, New Orleans residents were Catholic.  Until 1963, the Catholic religion said you couldn’t get into heaven if you were cremated, so somehow generations of New Orleanians had to fit into one tomb.

Tombs can fit anywhere from one to three caskets at a time.  Whenever there is a death, the tablet at the front of the tomb is removed, the brick and mortar is broken, the coffin is placed inside, the brick and mortar is replaced, the name is added to the tablet, and the tablet is put back on the tomb.  The interior of the tombs can get up to 102 degrees, which causes accelerated decomposition (not the loveliest of terms).  Remains must be left in the tomb a minimum of one year and one day.  If a tragedy occurs and more family members die than can be fit in the tomb or before the necessary time has passed, a wall vault can be rented.  The next time there is a death in the family, the coffin in the tomb is taken out, the decomposed remains are gathered and put into the back of the tomb with the other occupants, and the process starts all over again.  

It’s fascinating to wander through the cemetery, reading the tombs and imagining what the families inside were like when they were alive, though it gets a little spooky late in the day when the sun starts setting.  You can learn the history of some of the families during a New Orleans cemetery tour. 

Family tombs are owned like houses and it is the responsibility of the family to maintain the tomb.  One tomb in the Lafayette Cemetery has been in the same family since 1858.  On All Saints Day, families visit family tombs and picnic, drink wine, and socialize with their tomb neighbors.

While walking amongst the tombs, pay attention to the symbols on the tombs.  Every symbol has a meaning.  Inverted torches mean a life snuffed out.  A rose means Mary mother of Jesus.  A winged hourglass means that time flies.

New Orleanians put the “fun” in funeral.  Jazz funerals are common in New Orleans.  Jazz funerals include the hearse, the family, a brass band, and the second line consisting of friends, acquaintances, and strangers.  Mournful music is played on the way to the cemetery and joyful music is played leaving the cemetery because the loved one has gone to a better world.  When traveling to New Orleans, read the obituaries, find a jazz funeral, and join a second line.  Strangers are welcome.

The other New Orleans cemetery tour we joined was a Cemetery Voodoo Tour.  This tour visits the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 just outside the French Quarter.  The St. Louis Cemetery is not as photogenic as the Lafayette Cemetery, but it is older, built in 1789, and has some famous and historic residents like the voodoo queen Marie Leboux, Madame LaLaurie, and Homer Plessy.  Interestingly, while slaves were buried in family tombs with their Catholic owners, Protestants were segregated and buried in a separate section.  There is also a wall vault built in 1903 that contains the remains of people who emigrated from places like Haiti, France, Cuba, and Spain.  Note that this cemetery can only be visited on a guided tour.

We took our Garden District and Cemetery Voodoo walking tours with Historic New Orleans Tours, Inc.  Tours are small and cost $20 per person.  Reservations are not required.

Thank you to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Hotel Collection for hosting our trip to New Orleans and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  For updates on what is going on in New Orleans, follow the New Orleans CVB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Top 20 Things to Do in New Orleans

New Orleans is a popular weekend getaway destination, but there are so many things to do in New Orleans you can easily spend a week or more in the city.  New Orleans is the city of music, food, and cocktails, but there are also museums, churches, cemeteries, swamps, and plantations.  Here are 20 of the top things to do in New Orleans for planning your next trip to NOLA.

Listen to Live Music

Sometimes it’s hard to remember New Orleans is a real city with real people with real lives rather than a theme park where you can throw your cares away.  A big reason for this is the city is filled with music at all hours of the day.  Not only can you find music in the bars, restaurants, and music venues, you can also hear music all along the streets of the French Quarter.  There are so many places to find music in New Orleans, so be sure to either stop and listen to someone playing on Royal Street or step into one of the many music venues or bars offering live music for their customers.  When you leave New Orleans, you will miss the music.

For more about New Orleans’ music culture and where to listen, read Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans Music.

Eat Traditional New Orleans Food

New Orleans may be the city that has the best food in the United States.  I’m not talking about the fanciest restaurants or the most Michelin stars.  I’m talking about good old-fashioned food that has been around forever and is still done the best in the Crescent City.  You just can’t leave the city until you’ve had a po’boy, gumbo, Oysters Rockefeller, and the world famous beignets.  The hard part is having enough time to try all the fabulous foods New Orleans has to offer without gaining 50 pounds.

For more about New Orleans’ traditional foods and where to eat them, read 15 Traditional New Orleans Foods and 10 Top Restaurants in New Orleans.

Drink a New Orleans Cocktail

New Orleans is the capital of cocktails.  So many cocktails were invented right in New Orleans like the Hurricane, Sazerac, Bourbon Milk Punch, Ramos Gin Fizz, Grasshopper, and many, many more.  New Orleans not only has great cocktails, it also has great places to enjoy those cocktails, like The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone, where guests can sit at the revolving bar, or The 21st Amendment La Louisiane, which is like an old-timey speakeasy and a place you can kill two birds with one stone, drink a New Orleans cocktail and listen to New Orleans music.

If you want to learn more about what goes into a New Orleans cocktail, you can take a behind the scenes tour of Old New Orleans Rum, a local distillery.

To know what cocktails to order and where to drink them, read 15 Drinks to Try in New Orleans and 6 of New Orleans’ Best Hotel Bars.

Explore the French Quarter

When you see pictures of New Orleans, those pictures are usually of the French Quarter.  When New Orleans was founded in the early 1700s the entirety of the city was contained within the French Quarter and stayed that way for nearly a century.  The French Quarter’s architecture is unlike any other with its bright colors and balconies and galleries.  The area is so special all 78 blocks of buildings of the French Quarter are on the National Register of Historic Places.  To learn more about the history of the French Quarter, join a French Quarter walking tour lead by Historic New Orleans Tours, Inc.

The most popular streets of the French Quarter are Bourbon Street, filled with bars, and Royal Street, filled with shopping.  Spend some time wandering the streets and popping into shops, restaurants, bars, and museums.  Royal Street was my favorite street in the French Quarter as it is filled with shops selling antiques, art, and even Christmas ornaments.  Royal Street is also where many of New Orleans’ street musicians play.

For more information about New Orleans walking tours, including the French Quarter walking tour, read The Walking Tours of New Orleans.

Ride the Streetcar

New Orleans is a very walkable city, but some places are a bit too far for walking, which is where the New Orleans’ streetcar system comes in.  The St. Charles streetcar is the oldest line in New Orleans.  In fact, it is also the oldest continuously running streetcar line in the world.  The railway tracks were laid in 1835 to connect New Orleans proper to Carrollton, an uptown neighborhood that wasn’t always part of New Orleans.  The St. Charles line is also one of only two moving National Historic Landmarks.  The St. Charles streetcar line can be used to get to the Garden District and Audubon Park, zoo, and golf course.  The streetcars date back to the 1920s and have wood plank bench seats that flip to face the opposite way with the touch of a finger.  For fares, schedules, and maps, visit the RTA’s website.

Hop On and Off the City Sightseeing Bus

The City Sightseeing New Orleans hop-on hop-off bus is a great way to get acquainted with the layout of New Orleans and learn about the city.  The complete route takes two hours and visits the French Quarter (though it can’t drive inside the Quarter), the Central Business District, and the Garden District.   Your ticket provides unlimited trips for three days along with the option of taking three walking tours, a self-guided cemetery tour and guided walking tours of the French Quarter and Garden District.  We used our tickets to not only learn about and see New Orleans, but also as transportation to get to places that couldn’t be reached by streetcar. There are a few points of interest that can’t be reached on the streetcar, like Mardi Gras World and the World War II Museum.  The hop-on hop-off bus will take you right to their front doors. 

Go to Church at the St. Louis Cathedral

No tour of the French Quarter would be complete without a visit to Jackson Square and the cathedral that towers over it, the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis King of France.   The St. Louis Cathedral was originally built in 1727 and has been the city’s center of worship for over 280 years.  It is the oldest active cathedral in the United States.  The currently standing cathedral was completed in 1851.  In front of the cathedral is green Jackson Square with a bronze statue of General Andrew Jackson on his horse.  Be sure to walk by the back of the cathedral at night when the lights shining on the statue of Jesus with its arms upraised casts a striking shadow onto the cathedral wall.

Remember Katrina at the Presbytère Museum

The building that houses the Presbytère Museum, next door to the St. Louis Cathedral, was built in 1791 to compliment the cathedral and match the Cabildo on the other side.  It was built on the site of the residence of the Capuchin monks and used for commercial purposes until it became a courthouse in 1834 and then part of the Louisiana State Museum in 1911. 

The most riveting part of the Presbytère Museum is the downstairs exhibit on Hurricane Katrina.  We all remember witnessing the aftermath of the devastation on television.  The Katrina exhibit relives the catastrophe with timelines, first person accounts, videos, installations, and reconstructions.  Imagine living in a city that just received its first ever mandatory evacuation and hearing the national weather service announce, “Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks . . . perhaps longer.  At least one half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure . . . airborne debris will be widespread.  Persons . . . pets . . . and livestock exposed to the winds will face certain death if struck. . . . Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.” 

The upstairs exhibit covers a subject just as important to the identity of New Orleans, but far more joyful.  Upstairs is about all things Mardi Gras, with exhibits detailing every part of the Mardi Gras celebration including the floats, the parades, the costumes, and the private balls.

Celebrate Mardi Gras Year-Round at Mardi Gras World

Even if you’re not visiting New Orleans during the Mardi Gras season, you can still experience some of the pomp and pageantry of Mardi Gras.  There are a number of places where you can learn more about Mardi Gras and see some of the elaborate costumes, like the Presbytère Museum and Arnaud’s Mardi Gras Museum, but the best place to visit if you’re interested in Mardi Gras is Mardi Gras World.  Here is where the spectacular floats are created for 16 Mardi Gras krewes.  You can see floats from previous years and witness firsthand floats for next year’s parades being created.

For more information about Mardi Gras in New Orleans all year-round, read An Outsider’s Guide to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Fill a Prescription for Knowledge at the Pharmacy Museum

The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum used to be an actual working pharmacy.  The first resident was Louis Dufilho Jr., America’s first licensed pharmacist.  The building was constructed in 1823 and served as Dufiho’s apothecary and residence.  The building was sold in 1855 to Dr. J. Dupas who used the upstairs for his medical practice and kept the downstairs as a pharmacy.  The museum opened in 1950 with donated collections, but there are some items that were original to the Dufilho family, both healthcare and household items, which were found when the privy was excavated in 1988.  The museum displays a number of interesting exhibits covering everything from voodoo potions to opium to scary looking surgical instruments.  There is even an old soda fountain from the 1800s, on display because soda fountains were invented by American pharmacies to make the taking of unpleasant tasting medicines easier.

Do that Voodoo that You Do So Well at the Voodoo Museum

Voodoo is a mysterious practice which is shrouded in a lot of misinformation.  While many think of black magic and voodoo dolls with pins stuck in them, voodoo isn’t evil.  Voodoo is a socio-political-religious practice from West Africa that came to the United States with the slaves.  Voodoo is rarely used for evil but is rather used for four different categories, called gris-gris: love and sex, power and domination, fortune and luck, and uncrossing a gris-gris.  Visitors to New Orleans can learn more about voodoo at the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum which was founded in 1972.

Honor Those that Served at the World War II Museum

The National World War II Museum opened on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of D-Day.  The museum was created to honor those who served in World War II to protect our country and our freedoms.  There is a lot to see in this museum.  The most popular feature is Beyond All Boundaries, a 4D film produced and narrated by Tom Hanks.  When you first arrive pick up your interactive dog tag for the Dog Tag Experience and follow the story of a soldier throughout the museum.  The museum tells the story from beginning to end of World War II with immersive galleries, and The Boeing Center features aircraft from the era.  World War II veterans are sometimes available at the museum to share their stories with visitors.  A word of warning, the museum isn’t usually crowded, but if you arrive and it seems crowded with lines out the door, come back another day.

Get a Culinary Education at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum

One of New Orleans’ newest museums is the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.  Here visitors to New Orleans can learn more about the food, drink and culture of the South.  Exhibits explain what barbecue means in each state of the South and provides information about foods unique to the southern states.  There are some eclectic exhibits like a bar salvaged from the third oldest restaurant in America that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, a cocktail exhibit chronicling the cocktail from 1806 forward, and the largest collection of absinthe artifacts.  The museum is located a few blocks up from the St. Charles streetcar line.  The neighborhood feels a little sketchy, but does appear to be going through the process of gentrification.

Peek Into the Lives of the Rich and Famous in the Garden District

The French Quarter isn’t the only neighborhood to visit in New Orleans.  Jump on the St. Charles streetcar and head down the line to the Garden District.  While the French lived in the French Quarter, the Americans lived in the Garden District, which is why the architecture is so different.  Stroll through the Garden District and keep your eyes open for famous houses like the Benjamin Button house, the homes of famous residents like Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Ann Rice, and Nicolas Cage, and the childhood home of Peyton and Eli Manning.  Historic New Orleans Tours, Inc. offers walking tours through the Garden District, including the Lafayette Cemetery.

Haunt One of New Orleans’ Cemeteries

New Orleans’ cemeteries are destinations unto themselves.  Two of New Orleans’ cemeteries are easy to visit.  The first, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, is just outside of the French Quarter.  The St. Louis Cemetery opened in 1789 and has a very famous resident, Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen of New Orleans.  Some other famous sites in the cemetery are the Easy Rider tomb and Nicolas Cage’s pyramid tomb.  A newer but prettier cemetery is Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, opened in 1833 and located in the Garden District.  The above ground tombs with cracks in the stone and overgrown greenery make the Lafayette Cemetery very picturesque.

Scour the Swamps for Alligators

Louisiana is known for its swamps and alligators, both of which can be seen by taking a short drive out of the city.  The best time to see alligators is when it’s warm and they’re swimming around, but you can even see alligators when it’s cold and they’re partly buried in the muddy banks.  Alligators aren’t the only wildlife to be seen in the swamps.  There are also armadillo, deer, turtles, and lots of birds.  There are a few swamp tours from which to choose, but Jean Lafitte Swamp & Airboat Tours is the only company that can guide tours through the Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve.  We booked our tour through Gray Line Tours New Orleans, which provided transportation from the French Quarter to the swamp.

To learn more, read Alligator Hunting on a New Orleans Swamp Tour.

Time Travel Back to the Old South with a Plantation Tour

Louisiana’s history isn’t all rosy and its plantation homes are a reminder of that fact.  The stories of Louisiana’s plantation life and slavery can be learned by visiting one or more of the plantations along the old Mississippi River Road.  We first visited Laura, A Creole Plantation.  While you probably think of palatial homes like the one in Gone with the Wind when you think of a plantation home, the Laura plantation is not like that.  The Laura plantation was a place the family visited to conduct business while they resided in New Orleans.  The plantation is painted in bright colors like it was when the area was inhabited by French immigrants.  There are a few remaining slave cabins which can be viewed.  At one time these cabins covered three miles of land and housed eight people per cabin.  Even after the slaves were freed they and their descendants continued to live in these cabins until the 1970s.

Oak Alley Plantation is more like the plantations you imagine with columns, a wraparound porch, and a quarter-mile tunnel of oak trees leading up to the plantation.  The outside is painted in the American style, white with black shutters.  While the Laura tour focuses more on the business side of a plantation and slavery, a tour of Oak Alley is more about what it was like for the family living on the plantation.

Many companies offer tours from the French Quarter to a plantation home, but most of them only offer a visit to one.  I think it is important to visit two to see the differences.  Cajun Encounters Tour Co. offers a combined tour of both Oak Alley and Laura Plantation.

Golf One of the Oldest Courses in the United States

If you’re a golfer, a visit to New Orleans also provides the chance to play one of the oldest golf courses in the United States.  The first golf was played at the Audubon Park Golf Course in 1898.  The golf course is located within Audubon Park, named after the famous American ornithologist.  The course is surrounded by oak trees that are over 100 years old.  Not only is the golf course historic, it was also rated 4.5 stars by Golf Digest.  Within Audubon Park is also a zoo, aquarium, and butterfly garden.

To learn more about golfing this historic course, read Shooting for Birdies at New Orleans’ Audubon Park Golf Course.

Join One of New Orleans’ Many Celebrations

New Orleans’ most famous celebration is Mardi Gras, but the people of New Orleans find a reason to celebrate all year-round.  Mardi Gras season lasts for one to two months, starting January 6 and continuing through Fat Tuesday.  April is music season with the French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  The heat of summer brings Tales of the Cocktail.  The Christmas season starts December 1st and continues all the way through the first week of January, and New Year’s Eve in New Orleans is one of the most spectacular New Year’s Eve celebrations in the United States.  To learn more about New Orleans’ many celebrations, visit the tourism board’s calendar of events.

To learn more about the holidays in New Orleans, read 5 Reasons to Celebrate the Holidays in New Orleans.

Sleep in the French Quarter

For a trip to New Orleans the best places to stay are right in the thick of things in the French Quarter or in the quieter Garden District.  While the Garden District does have a number of New Orleans’ great restaurants, our preference was to stay in the French Quarter to be within easy walking distance of most of the sites and restaurants we would be visiting during our trip.

If you like sleek and modern, Hotel Le Marais is the hotel for you.  Hotel Le Marais is chic and trendy with blue lights illuminating the hotel interior and the outdoor pool.  Breakfast is served every morning in the dining area that turns into VIVE! Bar at night.  Our room was a quiet interior room with a view of the pool.

For old world elegance and luxury, stay at Hotel Mazarin.  The hotel wraps around an open courtyard where one of New Orleans’ best hotel breakfasts can be enjoyed in the morning.  Rooms have marble floors, crystal chandeliers, oriental rugs, wood trimmed with gold furnishings, and doors and windows that open to the courtyard.  The hotel is very quiet, though at night we could faintly hear some of the sounds from Bourbon Street since our room was on the top floor.  Attached to Hotel Mazarin are two great bars.  21st Amendment is a speakeasy style bar with craft cocktails and live music.  Patrick’s Bar Vin is a laid-back wine bar run by the darling of New Orleans, Patrick Van Hoorebeek, king of the Krewe of Cork.

Thank you to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Hotel Collection for hosting our trip to New Orleans and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  For updates on what is going on in New Orleans, follow the New Orleans CVB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Need more help planning your New Orleans adventure?  Here are some guidebooks we suggest.

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