mosquito

So this is the first year that I've tried to put together a trip down to Mardi Gras, and looking at all of my options it looks like costs are going to pile up pretty quick.

I think I have a hotel picked out, but do you guys know of or is there a guide somewhere to inexpensive places to eat and drink during the event? Or are all of the prices just jacked up for the week?

Appreciate the insight --

mosquito

EmailKid

mosquito,

While I appreciate wanting to drink on a budget, this really isn't a Budget Travel kind of a post. I am moving it to the South forum, where locals and visitors to NOLA can share good places to drink on the cheap.

EmailKid
Budget Travel moderator

peachfront

Seems to me that food/drink prices have gone through the roof since Katrina. It looks like while all the chefs and bartenders and restaurant owners were displaced, they figured out that pre-Katrina bar/restaurant prices were 1/3 to 1/2 what they were in other big cities. So they came back and now we have $13 martini's like everybody else. Sigh. There might be beer stands where you can get cheap beer in the Quarter, but otherwise I'm real tempted to smuggle in my own drinks whilst watching the parades. It's full circle back to the days when my mom would make her own fried chicken for us to eat as a picnic on the street while we viewed the parades!

I have always avoided Hurricanes, which seem to be of uncertain alcoholic content, depending on where you get them. It's a traditional drink but I feel like sometimes the unwary tourist gets watered-down Kool-Aid. Maybe that hasn't happened in years, though...it used to be a real problem back in the day, but I haven't touched a Hurricane in so long I don't know if the unscrupulous still do this. Me, if it's a guy selling something out of a stand for a couple bucks, I'll stick with a beer. Can't mess up a cheap beer, it is what it is.

Free drinks, including alcoholic drinks, in the casino (Harrahs) but the odds are not particularly good. In fact, they stink -- $6 a half hour time charge for 1/2 NL game, it's just ridiculous. No more self-service soft drinks. They got tired of bums hustling the free drinks. You have to actually be gambling now. But I already heard a guy tell me that playing 2/5 NL at Harrahs was cheaper than getting drinks at his hotel, and his drink of choice shouldn't have been that pricey, Crown Royal and Coke. He said it was $17 at his hotel, yikes! If you play a reasonable break-even poker game, you could probably grab a few drinks there. I'm told the good video poker machines aren't there any more, but you could look around, if you're a machine player.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. I don't usually eat out at cheap places, I cook at home, so I'm not much help there. Mother's is still there, it's popular, but there's always a line. For more higher end restaurants, Galatoire's has a lot of flavor of the old New Orleans. And while it's pricey, it isn't as pricey as some with the newer celebrity chefs. I think it's good value.

Enjoy your visit!!!! The food and drinks are excellent, but like other formerly budget destinations like Las Vegas, for whatever reason, the cost of eating and drinking has soared.