South - Searching for Hidden Gems of New Orleans!!!

Good morning fellow FTers!

This month I decided to book one of the more cliche trips one could book - I'm off to Mardis Gras in New Orleans 2/19-2/23 (yes, leaving the day before actual Mardis Gras day, but I'm sure there are plenty of great parades and such the week before)! My roommate has always wanted to go, so two tickets on CO later and we're off.

I'm curious, what are some little "hidden gems" you've seen/done/etc. in the New Orleans area? We don't have a car booked yet, but are most likely going to book one for all day Sunday 2/22. While we're going for her excitement to see Mardis Gras, I feel after 2 1/2 days of it I'm ready to move on and explore. I'm not the party type, though I'm into the traditions and have been reading about the history...I'd book a car the entire time and drive all over Louisiana if she were up for it. We're both really into history, so I'm sure we'll find common ground there!

I've had someone recommend Oak Alley as a must, along with walking around the Garden District (in the day time!), and a Bayou/Swamp "cruise". Have any of you taken one of the Bayou tours, and if so which line did you take? I'm really interested in this. There are so many lines that offer a cruise, so I'm a bid confused as to what's highly recommended.

I'd love to hear about any other little gems...whether it be a ma-and-pop diner, a little voodoo shop in the middle of nowhere, a historical site, etc.

Thanks in advance!!!!

Steph

We used Cajun Pride Tours and did a swamp/plantation/city tour which burned a whole day but really was good.

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Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Take the ferry to Algiers (it's free) and tour Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World (admission fee discounted with AAA)..It gives a history of the parades etc and you can see the floats, giant puppets etc. We did this over New Years and watched artists working on the 2009 designs.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park - Barataria Unit - walk along the footpaths thru the marsh and swamp.
http://www.nps.gov/jela/barataria-preserve.htm

National World War II Museum
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Drive up Jefferson Hwy into Kenner. The highway eventually becomes River Road. Continue driving upriver to the Sunshine Bridge at Donaldsonville and cross to the West Bank. Drive back towards New Orleans. You will see several plantations, including Destrehan (east bank) & Oak Alley (west bank), during your drive. Stop at one of the small restaurants for lunch. Should take most of a day.

Drive to Baton Rouge and visit the state capitol building - the tallest in the U.S..
http://www.crt.state.la.us/tourism/capitol/capitol.htm

Ride the streetcar up to Audubon Park (Uptown neighborhood), see the Zoo, walk thru Tulane University campus, have lunch at the Camellia Grill, or one of the many little restaurants in that area. (Actually, this might be a little difficult with all of the Uptown parades that day.)

You can do all of these without a tour guide, if you wish.

This is an interesting article on NOLA:

http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/NewOrleans206/index.pdf

Parades can get a little tired after awhile, but since you are going to NOLA during Mardi Gras yes, seeing a couple parades and spending some time in the Quarter would be a good idea. Endymion (2/21) and Bacchus (2/22) are a couple big ones.

I've always considered the Algiers ferry to be a very cool quick way to get another perspective of the city, even if you don't get off the boat and just ride right back. For a few years it was my daily commute.

Oak Alley is worth the visit. Potentially you could combine visits to other historic homes en route, or in terms of extending the trip go to Oak Alley and then Nottoway or Madewood. It might be a long day; definitely historic.

Here's my recommendation for a very full day:

Book a morning tour on Annie Miller's Son's Swamp Boat Tours (http://www.annie-miller.com/index.html). They leave from Houma, LA, which is about a 75-minute drive from New Orleans. I haven't done the tour with Annie's son, but they always were great when Annie was running the show.

Following the tour, have lunch at the Bayou Delight (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-18164752R-bayou_delight_restaurant-i) (which is where you gather to meet the swamp tour). It's nothing fancy, but it's a good, stereotypical fried seafood shack along the banks of the Bayou Black.

After lunch, drive to Donaldsonville (another 75 minutes), where you can pick up the River Road. As FLYMSY indicated, you can follow the River Road back to New Orleans and visit several plantations (including Oak Alley) along the way.

At the risk of being obvious, it's New Orleans: Go See Live Music.

The hidden gem part? Well known to locals and frequent visitors, but not so well advertised to the newbies: get outside the Quarter and head to the Marigny. The Frenchmen St area, between Esplanade and Royal (just outside the Quarter) may be the best concentration of live music clubs in the world. Most nights, you'll find great local bands playing at clubs including Snug Harbor, dba, Spotted Cat, Apple Barrel, Cafe Negril, Lazziza, Blue Nile, Rays Boom Boom Room, Dragons Den, Checkpoint Charlies, Hookah Cafe, and the Balcony Club. That's a dozen clubs in a short 2-3 block stretch. Jazz, blues, rock, funk, and more. Most with nominal cover charge, or even free...

Check Offbeat (http://www.offbeat.com/listings/clubs.php)for listings, or better yet, just walk the street and follow your ears.

The music clubs are a good suggestion, but the OP said she's "not the party type" and "really into history". She stated that she'll be ready to "move on and explore". I take that to mean she wants to get away from the frenzy for a change of scenery. Maybe, she can clarify and we can offer additional ideas.

This thread makes a very important point for all visitors to New Orleans: New Orleans is not the French Quarter and the French Quarter is not New Orleans. Too many tourists spend their entire visit in the Quarter (or worse, on Bourbon Street), and miss everything else. My personal recommendation to tourists (and, of course, FLYMSY, as a local, and swag, who, like me, is a frequent visitor, please feel free to disagree with me) is to spend several hours during the day time touring the Quarter (the National Park Service offers one of the better guided tours of the Quarter) and half an hour on a busy night walking Bourbon Street. That's all that is needed in the Quarter. (Although there is good music to be heard in the Quarter, the vast majority of the good music in New Orleans is not in the Quarter, and the vast, vast majority is not on Bourbon Street. And although there are some good restaurants in the Quarter (Stella and Bayona, for example, are two of the best restaurants in New Orleans, IMHO, and Coop's Place, a dive bar on the edge of the Quarter, is a personal favorite), the vast majority are not in the Quarter, and the vast, vast majority are not on Bourbon Street.) The rest of one's visit can then be spent seeing the rest of the wonderful things that New Orleans and southern Louisiana have to offer.

This thread makes a very important point for all visitors to New Orleans: New Orleans is not the French Quarter and the French Quarter is not New Orleans. Too many tourists spend their entire visit in the Quarter (or worse, on Bourbon Street), and miss everything else.

Agree 100%. I only wish I could convince some out-of-state friends who have been coming to visit every year, 7-10 days at a time, for over 10 years. Every day of their visit, from morning until night, you cannot dynamite them out of the Quarter. By design, they have a key to the house. And, then again, they live near Disney World.

Been two Mardi Gras and New Orleans many times. One year went with my girlfriend at the time (now wife) who is not very keen on crowds - so that trip we searched out a lot of other activities around and away from the city.

The swamp tour was very cool. Forget which company we used, but definitely do it.

One night we did one of the haunted history/ghost tour of the french quarter. It actually ended up being very cool -- not sure the tour itself was the best ever, but combining the stories with all the crazyness of Mardi Gras around us, it was a lot of fun (a lot of the regular Mardi Gras folks on the street went out of their way to entertain the group as we walked by).

In the French Quarter we checked out the Voodoo Musuem (http://www.voodoomuseum.com/). Would say that was worth it.

We also took a day and did a big circle outside New Orleans, basically going places I found on Roadside America (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/la)'s Lousianna page -- stopped at places like the Bonnie and Clyde Museum in Gibsland and the Tabasco Factory at Avery Island. Just looked back at the site and think there is a new site you could visit - the Britney Spears Museum - actually part of the Kentwood Museum).

The music clubs are a good suggestion, but the OP said she's "not the party type" and "really into history". She stated that she'll be ready to "move on and explore". I take that to mean she wants to get away from the frenzy for a change of scenery. Maybe, she can clarify and we can offer additional ideas.

Fair enough, but I will note that not all clubs are "party" scenes. If she does want to see music, a place like Snug Harbor is a relaxed environment, with cocktail seating, etc.

I'll be in New Orleans in April, staying at the Marriott on Canal St. in the French Quarter. Would love to avoid the $ 30/nt parking at the hotel!! Is there a lot next to the hotel or even a block or two away that is reasonable and safe?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!

Don't know the prices for overnight parking, but check out the Harrah's garage. Other than that, the answer to your question is: Nope!

And, as a point of info, the Marriott is not in the French Quarter. The FQ, starts one block behind the Canal St. side of the hotel, on the other side of the street.

I second the National World War II Museum. Also, Stella.

And the Marigny - Snug Harbour for a burger! . Marigny Brasserie has a great Sunday brunch menu, too.

Also, Stella.You're killing me! I had reservations at Stella last Friday night, but because of a flight cancellation (LGA-ORD), AA could not get me to MSY at all on Friday (and in fact they would not have been able to get me there until late Saturday night; it was the beginning of school vacation week in the NYC area) and I had to cancel my entire plans for a weekend in NOLA. :(