Planning New Orleans Trip

Hi all,
Thinkin about putting together a road trip to New Orleans this summer for the family vacation. Just looking for ideas of things to see and do while there from folks that have been, also some lodging recommendations would be great. Not tied into any dates as of yet, but looking at probably the month of june sometime.

 

How old are the family members & what are everones interest?

 

When it comes to NOLA that's a VERY IMPORTANT q...

 

The Audubon Zoo and Insectarium in particular are pretty fun. I also really liked the aquarium which is not too far away. Other than that and a few other touristy things, I don't have much to talk about...

 

Come see me!

 

If you all like drinking, you have found your city. At the zoo you can bring your own roll around cooler filled with liquor. If you forget, it is all right because they sell mixed drinks there!

The food is World Class! I had a friend from Chicago tell me that the food at the gas stations there is better than some fancy restaurants in Chicago.

During the day, start at Jackson Square and the French Market. Afternoon hit the zoo. Night go to Bourbon Street. Lots of fun!

Just be careful because it is a dangerous city!

 

Also, I love the D Day museum

 

If you can make it out to the keibler farm I highly reccommend it. Seeing a gator farm with thousands of turttles and gators was awesome you can even hold a gated at the end of the tour

 

The French Quarter best part of New Orleans. I go there on a regular basis lol.

 

Magazine Street is where is at.

 

Plan on it being HOT. And the nearest beaches are a couple hours drive (Gulfport/Biloxi or Texas).

The plantation homes along the river are amazing to see. The ghost/vampire/cemetery tours are a fun way to see the Quarter. The Art Muesuem and City park. There are several state parks and some battle grounds in the area. Stennis Space Center isn't too far of a drive to the east.

 

If you are planning on going to the beach, about 1 hour from N.O. go to Biloxi, Ms. Lots of casinos and some pretty sugar sand beaches. My favorite casino in Biloxi is Beau Rivage. INMO, Biloxi is much safer.

Living so close to beaches, casinos and N.O., I forget that other people don't have this stuff.

 

I visited New Orleans just 2 weeks ago with my fiance and even though we were there only for the weekend, we still had a great time. We stayed at the Marriott on Canal St. and the location was perfect for us since we didn't have a car. Everything was in close walking distance:
- French Quarter (8 minutes)
- the river (8 minutes)
- Insectarium (5 minutes)
- Aquarium (8 minutes)
- Harrah's casino (5 minutes)
- Emeril's restaurant on Tchoupitoulas St. (she really wanted to go there) (12 minutes)
- the Super Dome and the Arena (20 minutes)

Some recommendations to take your family would be the Insectarium (you can eat bugs for free there), the Aquarium, take them on an Alligator tour (we used a company called Cajun Pride), and Louis Armstrong park. The cemetery and voodoo tour was cool but not sure if young kids will like it but definitely would recommend finding a tour guide to take you. We used New Orleans Spirit Tours to guide us around. Also, if you walk around the French Quarter, especially on Bourbon St., there are quite a few strip clubs with pictures of naked women exposed to the public. Not sure if you want your kids to see that.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I might actually post some pics on a thread I started here about going to New Orleans.

 

The wifey and I are mid 40's and one adult child (19) will be tagging along.

 

Thanks for the responses folks. I'm making notes of all of these places as they go along with all of our interest. We will have about 5 days to spend there, but if we can get it out our system in a few days we may take the extra couple of days and head to MS, I'm liking the idea of the casinos . Any and all other suggestions are appreciated......man, I'm glad I found this sight!

 

anyone see the irony here??? killer says be careful its a dangerous city.

 

I used to live 3.5-4 hr from New Orleans. But my parents never would go there. We went once or twice that i remember. once when i was young, and me and my mom stopped there for a few hours another time a couple years ago. I love New Orleans, one of these days, i am going to go there myself and explore the area some, especially the french quarter and find the places the locals eat (best food IMHO).

If you go the the french quarter though, make sure you go to Cafe Du Monde

i realize that is probably understood, but I havent seen it here yet, so figured i would say something

 

I lived in NOLA from 1/2/11 until 9/1/11


The good: There are AWESOME breweries, AMAZING food, and GREAT music. The music has to be "reasearched" somewhat, same with the food as there are tourist traps galore.

In fact when it comes to both music and food, there are A LOT of places that are still around simply because they've been around forever, and people keep flocking there.


The bad: It is one MAJOR LEAGUE FILTHY AND DANGEROUS place. There is a reason why Uptown peeps rarely leave Uptown, unless it is to go to the "Bywater".


To the OP: I suggest you come up with a bit of a plan as to what your/wife interests are, and maybe we can come up with a blueprint for things that might interest y'all to do.


BTW, if it was me I'd visit NOLA during the early spring or late fall. I'm from FL, and I'd NEVER experienced humid heat, like I did in NOLA...

 

As far as interests go, I'm all about the food, love the hot and spice (have heard about the amazing food there, although not exactly my wifes or daughters cup of tea. We like the ideas of the insectarium and aquarium...also would like to visit a gator farm. Really would like to do the french quarter, and take in a little of the local history. The cemetary and such sounds cool also. A few people have mentioned about the danger there......what are the areas to avoid, we wanna have an enjoyable but SAFE visit.

 

Def hit up the french Quarter and the d day museum is awesome