New Orleans, Louisiana | Travel Guide

We would end our American holiday in the deep South in charming New Orleans. This city was the reason we were travelling to USA in the first place, as Mum had always wanted to visit it. It was a very interesting place, busting with music, one surprisingly interesting museum, delicious comfort food and the place's unique history and culture was almost palpable in the air.



Out of the American cities we have visited through the years, I feel like New Orleans is definitely up there with my favourites, alongside with San Francisco and Boston. I'm not quite sure what is prompting me to classify it as such but I just felt happy walking around in the streets. This year, the city is celebrating its 300 years since it was founded, which could be seen with the different Nola 300 signs around the city, with NO being the acronym for New Orleans and the shortening for Louisiana being LA.

Stay

Sheraton Hotel

We were staying at the Sheraton on Canal Street, which was located just at the edge of the French quarter and it was lovely to be so centrally located. Except our one day trip to explore the areas outside of New Orleans, we walked absolutely everywhere. I personally had a little rush of disappointment when we learnt that the WiFi was only free in the lobby and that you would have to pay for it in the rooms (15 USD for a day). Stubbornly, I was prepared to go without it and just plan more trips to the lobby to go on the Internet to relax in the downtime but once I went down the morning after we arrived, I couldn't even get the lobby WiFi to work. After a quick chat with one of the check-in clerks, he had promptly granted me free room WiFi as a compensation (side note: it turned out it was my phone's fault that it couldn't log onto the lobby WiFi, which a restart quickly fixed). However, I was very happy to be given the complimentary WiFi for my troubles. It was also a bit of a blessing to be sleeping in an actual bed in this hotel, as opposed to in Washington where I had been on a fold-out one that had done nothing good to my bad shoulder.

Locations

Canal Street

Like I mentioned, our hotel was located on the gigantic Canal Street that had multiple car lanes and a tram line running down the length of it. We routinely had to cross this road to get into the French quarter. This huge street literally fences the west side of the French Quarter, where we would spend most of our time, so it was very convenient. Along Canal Street itself is also a variety of restaurants that we used particularly in the morning. All around New Orleans, we could see Mardi Gra throws, which is a necklace of beads and sometimes other trinkets that they usually throw around during Marti Gra and they just let them stay wherever they land. We saw them hanging in trees, over street signs and more odd places. We obviously also had to try out the tram, just for the fun of it, and it reminded me of the cable carts we rode in San Francisco four years ago.

French Quarter

The French Quarter was undoubtedly where we spent most of our time while in New Orleans and it is also the area that the city is so famous for. It houses Royal Street, which is known for shopping, and Bourbon Street, which is known for its many drinking establishments. Fun fact (that we learnt while on a walking tour about the French Quarter): Bourbon street used to house the Opera back in the day. We found so many great places to eat in this area and so many places had live music, which we enjoyed immensely. Being close to this area was definitely a great decision.

Food and music

BB King’s Blues Club

This place we actually ended up, I kid you not, three times during our relatively short time in New Orleans. Dad found it through a Tripadvisor recommendation on the first night we were in town and I am so happy that we stumbled upon it. We also had drinks and a little chill after walking tour and came back to eat dinner a second time. They had a dish called Chicken Fried Chicken which is possibly the best chicken I have ever tasted and resting on a glorious pile of mac and cheese. The portion was way too big for me to every finish but I gave it my best shot. Another wonderful thing about this place was the music. On the first night, an incredible woman who I have unfortunately forgotten the name of, performed with the BB King's All Star musicians, and her Proud Mary cover was so freaking cool and mesmerising. During our final visit, we had the pleasure of hearing Kevin Gullage and his band perform. He is only 19 years old but such a spirit on stage with a bright smile. I fought through my social anxiety and went up to ask for his EP, which was then signed by him and the whole band. When he sung a Blues cover of Thinking Out Loud and Valerie, I felt a new appreciation of the musical interpretation. Such a freaking cool place with awesome music and delicious food.

Brunch on Steamer Nanchez

Dad had pre-booked us a trip and brunch on one of the only steamboats still in operation. Steamer Nanchez was a glorious sight to behold and it was pretty cool to be onboard of an actual steamboat. The buffet was absolutely delicious and it introduced us to a dessert called Banana Foster that we could seek out several times throughout our remaining time in New Orleans. It was so damn good that most of us had to go for a second helping of it. We were also treated to music as we were finish up our food and going around to explore the outside of the boat. A very cool experience, even if we missed out a bit on the commentary while we were sailing outwards because we were busy stuffing our faces.

IHOP

Obviously, we had to eat pancakes at IHOP. It is a tradition by this point whenever we are in USA. In fact, we ended up having breakfast at IHOP twice during out trip but that allowed me to eat my old favourite - birthday cake pancakes and later try their international Mexican pancakes. Mum also ordered french toast with banana foster both times, a local addition to the card. It was good, like it always is.

Court of Two Sister

One of our walking tour guides recommended that we check out the Court of Two Sisters to get some great food. It turned out to be an absolutely overflowing buffet with a lot of delicious things, lana foster included. It was so good but one of the more expensive places we ate.

Café Beignet

Seeing as the beignet was one of the food trademark of New Orleans, we obviously had to try it. I stumbled upon another blog post telling travellers to check out this café and diligently we went. We had original planned to stop by for breakfast one day but it ended up being our dinner a day that we were all feeling pretty worn out. They were good but nothing mind-blowing. I enjoyed the frosted sugar the most but I was proud of myself for trying a local food.

The Ruby Slipper

I had read about this place online and it was a bit disappointing really. The photos of the cinnamon swirl pancakes definitely looked much better than what we were served. I had looked forward to tasting the pancakes, so that was a little bit of a let down because there was not a lot of cinnamon swirling around in that pancake dough.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 

My brother quoted Forrest Gump during our New Orleans trip more times than I could count, so naturally we had to visit the place inspired by Bubba Gump from the film. We had a fun evening out, even if we mysteriously were asked to wait half an hour for a table to then be lead up to a practically empty floor. On the table was a sign saying Run Forrest Run but you could flip another sign saying Stop Forrest Stop, which was red instead of blue, which would then let your server know that you needed to talk to them. Quite interesting and the food was great. We had a dessert that was absolutely glorious. We got a laugh out of reading the fake newspaper used as wrapping, which was especially made with different achievements that Forrest Gump archives throughout the film.

Museums

Old Ursuline Convent Museum

We had not planned on seeing this place, but we had a bit of free time when we stumbled upon it and thought we might as well see what it was about. We got to learn a bit about the nuns and the place itself but it wasn't really my cup of tea.

World War II Museum

Okay, I will be the first to say that this museum was awesome. The price for the ticket was fairly expensive but it was such a cool place. We bought the additional entry to see the 48 minute film narrated by Tom Hanks, called Beyond All Boundaries, and it was astonishing. Most of the experience was 4D and the way they described the history made me tear up several times. It was an emotional journey. After the film we headed up to The Road to Berlin and The Road to Tokyo. We had been given dog tags with our tickets and once there you would be able to pick one person to follow their personal story throughout those two sections of museums. My brother accidentally pressed and chose my person for me, which I might have been a bit overly upset about but I detest having choices made for me. I did soften up a bit throughout and obviously I got attached to my person, regardless of whether I had picked him or not. His name was William Disanza who was originally a merchant marine, who later quit that after his brother was killed at sea and his mother did not want to lose another son like that. Instead he joined the army, ended up on crew boat anyway and later he was sent to be a OSS officer in Burma, working with the locals. I love a good interactive museum and other than the feature with the dog tags that got me involved, they had different video snippets playing around the different areas and an interesting way of presenting the history.

Civil War Museum

Now, as opposed to the World War II museum, and located in close proximity, was the Civil War museum which in contrast was a very old museum that represented things the way that has always made me dislike being dragged into a museum. I'm not fond of looking at artefacts behind a glass casing. I don't find that inspiring to learn more. But the museum was a bit intriguing because it showed how differently the Confederacy is obviously viewed in the South. They also call it a war between states instead of a civil war, which serves to show how differently they viewed the war.

Walking tours

When looking at the possible walking tours we could take in New Orleans, we knew that we wanted to learn more about the French Quarter and also incorporate a bit of the scary stuff that the city is also known for. We opted for a ghost tour over a vampire or voodoo tour.

French Quarter

We met up at Jackson Square right outside of St. Louis Cathedral, where we met our tour guide, a local named Sean. Once the tour began, he started explaining about the great battle that Andrew Jackson won in New Orleans and commented that the statue of him in the middle of the park was a replica of the one in Washington, D.C. where we had been just a few days prior. We learnt a lot of interesting things during the tour such as the slaves were considered Catholics and thus given Sunday off and allowed to play music, which is one of the reasons that the African Drums were been present to influence jazz (and define it really), as well as the other music coming out of New Orleans. A lot of other slave owners at the time banned music but the French did not care. We were also told how New Orleans had burnt down three times and trey kept rebuilding using the same flammable materials, a local cypress wood, before finally switching to bricks. We were also told how the battle that Andrew Jackson won was  partly supplied with soldiers from a huge group of pirates that had been recently arrested because the brothers Pierre and Jean Lafitte, one of whom was a privateer and the other in charge of storing the goods, had started pissing off the people in charge by undercutting them. Another little detail that I found quite interesting was the fact that any modern touches (like phone towers, phone booth - both of which can be seen in the second photo below) had to blend in and not disturb the look of French quarter, so they look quite elegant rather than overwhelming. All of the French Quarter facades s are protected and cannot be altered.

Ghost (at night)

We met outside of St. Louis Cathedral around 8 PM making this tour the only one we did in after the sun had set for obvious reasons. It needed to be spooky. Funnily enough, our French Quarter tour guide Sean stopped by just as it was about to begin and it turned out our Ghost guide Daniel was his brother. I found that so funny and oddly cool because what are the chances of us booking two tours and getting two brothers? The first thing that Daniel asked us as we had just started the tour was how many people in the group believed int ghosts, to which about half of the people in attendance replied with an affirmative. None of us from my family raised our hands, which was hardly surprising but I definitely think that I am the one that most believes in ghosts out of the four of us. I don't necessarily believe in actual ghost but I believe that there could something paranormal that we don't understand yet. During the tour, we heard about a man who hanged himself and now the restaurant that resides in the place of his old home put out two glasses of red wine and some bread each night and give the people the chance to dine with a ghost. We also heard about a couple whose home burned down while they were at he opera and it was discovered that they had a torture chamber where they had slaves tied up. It was only discovered after a couple of the other slaves told he firemen, who had arrived to stop the fire. The tour was not as scary as I had imagine but it proved to be interesting to learn some history with or without the reported hauntings at the different places. I didn't take a single photo during the trip, so I was wrapped up in the stories to a degree.

Day trip to New Orleans' surroundings

Our last full day in New Orleans would be a day trip starting at 9 AM and ending at 5 PM. Dad had bought a bought a combo tour that would entail both a hotel pick up and hotel drop off and two different locations with their own separate tours.

Oak Alley Plantation

The first would be a look at Oak Alley Plantation, which was a huge plantation with 1200 archers and around 106 slaves, working the sugar cane fields and being house slaves to their owners. The place  was owned by Jacques and Celina Roman in the 1940s and '50s. We arrived by bus and after a little trouble with a Frenchman who had paid some agent too low a price for the tour. The heat was one of first things I noticed stepping out of the bus and then you saw the pathway from the parking lot (near the sugar fields) all the way to the big house. Along the path was a little village almost of slave homes were lined on either side. None of the original homes were standing today but about a third of the original number had been reconstructed using old drawings. We walked through the back entrance into the Big House and a guide took us through some of the different rooms in the house. It was interesting to see how they lived and hear about the way the owners and slaves interacted at the time. It was horrible to be reminded that we used to treat each other like that but it is important to remember our history so we do not repeat it. I must confess that I was blown away when they opened the balcony doors on the second floor and you could see the literal oak alley leading to the front door of the house. It was gorgeous. After the house tour, we stopped by the civil war tent. The civil war obviously marked a time where the "usual" life on the plantation was bound to change. It was interesting to get to inspect the recreation of the homes that the slaves lived in but it was also a bit horrifying to see how closely they lived and to read about the work hours and injuries and just general conditions they lived in. We didn’t have too much time to explore before we headed back on the bus to go to the swamp.

Airboat Swamp Tour

I have to say that I didn’t know a lot about what this even was when Dad originally said he had booked a trip to a plantation and the swap. I had not thought about it at all until we were in the bus heading for the so-called swap and I suddenly heard something about alligators. Naturally I instantly got excited. It turned out that we would be getting on an airboat (the type of boat with a gigantic loud fan) and sail around the swamp and marshland just outside of New Orleans and explore the bayou and getting to pet alligators! I’m always a sucker for anything that includes animals and I found that I quite enjoyed the blasting around on the water on the fast and loud boat. We went with two other small groups of two and three and our guide was local born and raised in the bayou and he knew so much about the alligators, other local animals and the vegetation we saw all around us. Chaz (I might be misspelling that because his accent was a little thick) even raised alligators himself and he brought a little one, who was almost a year old, with him in a big Tupperware stored under his seat. He calls them all Benny and the little guy was soft to the touch and absolutely adorable. I also managed to touch one of the bigger ones that Chaz literally pulled out of the water by clamping his hands around its mouth. They make intimidating hissing, grumbling sounds when they are pissed but our guide quickly put him/her back in the water. The ‘gators flocked to the boat as soon as they heard the engine - intelligent enough to know that sound meant food. And I was astonished with the choice of food: marshmallows! Who knew alligators had a sweet tooth? I now know so much about alligators (like temperature determines whether an egg hatches a female or male alligator - above 93 degree Fahrenheit will produce males and below will hatch females), I got to touch two of them (the sides of their bellies are softer than you think and their top is as hard as you expect, except with the little young Benny) and we got to see a lot of beautiful swamp and marshland (like... it felt breathtaking to me). I didn’t think I would be describing that type of scenery as beautiful but it truly was. Something called Spanish moss was hanging of the many cypress trees creating a unique look of the whole swamp. Mum and my brother complained a little of getting mud thrown at them but I honestly didn’t care when I had the wind and sun in my face and beautiful nature whizzing past me. We also had a little panic session when we stopped in the marshland and had bird jump on the boat for marshmallows as well. Dad and my brother who was sat at the edges were also a little nervous that the 'gators would jump up at them, as we saw how they could easily launch their bodies halfway out of the water. I had faith that we were safe and I just took my time to enjoy it all. Throughout, I felt at peace and so appreciative that I was able to see this and appreciate the place through a local’s eyes. It was a very cool experience that I highly recommend. It was arranged by Louisiana Tour Company.

New Orleans was quite the experience, both exploring the French Quarter, visiting the World War II Museum, learning history on our walking tours, going on the swamp airboat ride and eating so much delicious food. The vibe of the city seemed intoxicating and even in the constant heat, we had a blast visiting. It was such an interesting place to visit and also so very different from the other American cities I have visited before. We have been on the East Coast and on the West Coast but this was my first time experiencing that Southern America and I was pleasantly surprised.

I am so happy that I sat down to write this blog post because I love having captured multiple snapshots of our holiday that we will be able to look back at and remember fondly. When we are travelling, I always feel like my head is being stuffed with so much new information and so many new inputs that it can be a bit overwhelming, if you don't take time to rest and process as well. I think we found a nice balance in New Orleans between seeing and experiencing a lot of stuff but not rushing around to do so. It was a lovely holiday.

During our trip, I made little day to day notes and I can't quite bear to lose them, so I will add them here at the end of the post.

1st Day in New Orleans

Check in at Sheraton Hotel

Walk around local area

Lunch at Mena’s Palace

Chill at the hotel & watching Jurassic World

Dinner at BB King’s Blues Club

2nd Day in New Orleans

Banana and strawberry smoothie at Starbucks

Internet sorted!

Brunch on Steamer Natchez

Shopping at Riverside Outlet (and new sunglasses to me)

Chill at the hotel and watching Toy Story 3

Dinner at RF’s Bar

3rd Day in New Orleans

Breakfast at IHOP

French Quarter Walking Tour (guide named Sean)

Drinks at BB King’s Blues Club

Old Ursuline Convent Museum

Lunch at Court of Two Sisters

Nap time at the hotel and shower 

Dinner at BB King’s Blues Club

Kevin Gullage’s music (bought EP)

4th Day in New Orleans

Breakfast at The Ruby Slipper

Streetcar ride

World War II Museum (followed Bill, saw the Beyond all boundaries)

Lunch at the Soda Shop

Chill at hotel and watching The Rock

Eating beignets at Café Beignet

Ghost Walking Tour (guide named Daniel)

5th Day in New Orleans

Smoothie at Starbucks

Pick-up at hotel

Oak Alley Plantation with guide in the Big House

Pick-up

Airboat Swamp Tour (guide named Chaz)

Brief rest at hotel

Dinner at Bubba Grumb

Final Day in New Orleans

Breakfast at IHOP

Civil War Museum

Chill at hotel

Lunch at Pierre Maspero’s

Travel to airport and flying home