Things to do in NOLA

My wife and I are taking a vacation to NOLA from the 10th to the 14th. We're staying in the French Quarter. We plan on eating lots of seafood, but other than that, we don't really have any plans. We're not renting a car, unless necessary.

Other than exploring Jackson Square, Bourbon Street and the other FQ attractions, what should we do? We'd like to visit a plantation, but the tours are kinda expensive (we'll still do it, if they're worth it). Should we rent a car for the day and drive ourselves?

We also want to do a swamp tour. Again, rent a car, take a cab, or take other transportation?

We may want to find a beach for one day, although those appear to be quite a distance. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kramer

Plantations and swamp are both far away. You'd be better off doing those on the way to or back from the airport as it's much closer to either.

The paddleboat takes you up river to one plantation so it's kinda fun.

I spend most of my time people watching at night and walking the shops by day.

It's been a few decades, but Molly's Irish Pub was a nice place in the Quarter that locals went to, not so much tourists. Pat O'Brian's is the tourist bar there. Get a Hurricane and keep the glass. A guided tour of the city is kinda interesting. If you're doing the tourist thing, I'd do that. Dress cool, as NOLA (LA in general) has the worst weather in the world. It is, as I refer to it, The Armpit of the World, and I've been around the world 3 times, so I'm speaking from experience. Good food there, though. I dunno what the crime is like today since Katrina pushed that element to Houston and other surrounding areas, but be very careful as it used to be Really Bad. When I interviewed there, they had at least one gunshot wound to the head every day come in the hospital. That's a lot.

Honestly... its a small town and the quarter is the 5 most interesting blocks of it. Otherwise its a filthy, poverty ridden mess with the kind of weather that makes people from Thailand look for a place with AC.

Notable exceptions:

• The zoo was nice

• Some of the architecture is amazing.

• The aquarium is interesting, is near the quarter and has great AC. You can hide there when the heat becomes stifling or the stink of the river becomes overwhelming.

• In the early AM, when the quarter is cleaning up all the vomit from the night before and re-stocking the trinkets, and the street urchins who sell them are sleeping off the heroin... Cafe Du Monde has excellent coffee and awesome pastry. Its a nice place to sit and people watch while you make your plans for the day. It gets really touristy later but NOLA wakes up late so there are a few hours before 10am where you have the whole town to yourself.

• Lake Pontchartrain is cool if you have access to a boat. Swimming was verbotten when we were last there due to unstable bacteria in the water but that seemed to be temporary as there are all kinds of swimming related areas that wouldn't exist if that was normal.

I tried to jog around the park at the end of the spillway but the heat was ridiculous. There is a bar on the marina, right at the end of the park with good cold beer, friendly folk and po boys that saved me from certain heat stroke. They were not above poking a little fun at the northern fool trying to jog in NOLA, in August, at 2PM.

If you've never been, I suggest a van tour of the city. I'll have to find the name of the company that I went with, but the name of the owner/operator is Ozzy. He's a several-generation NO native, and really knows the history of the place. He gives a really laid back tour, and generally has an answer for any question you'd have about the area.

Just found it. Celebration tours, ask for Oz.

BTW, New Orleans has good food in general, not just seafood.

Things on my must eat list from New Orleans: Muffalettas
PoBoys
crawfish
beignets

If you want to get out of the French Quarter, take the street car down St. Charles. There are plenty of nice restaurants and nice architecture. It's more laid back as you go further uptown. More uptown, you'll pass Loyola University of New Orleans and Tulane University.

A couple of nice places more towards uptown are Mid-City Rock and Bowl and the Maple Leaf bar. The zoo is uptown too.

There's a riverboat that runs between the Aquarium (downtown near the French Quarter) and the Zoo (uptown)

Then again, I hate trying to get downtown.

Walk a lot, take a lot of architecturally unique pictures and pics of boobs, sample a lot of different foods, ride the street car, do the zoo and the aquarium, possibly do the paddleboats, sleep very little and you'll have lots of fun.

It's a nice way to kill 3 days, anymore than that and it begins to get monotonous or else you'll need to seek outside places to spice things up.

The ghost tours can be interesting. They're hoaky (sp?) but still can be interesting.

Did I mention to take lots of pics of boobs?

well Ray Ray is no longer mayor, so it should be a little cleaner. The Clover Grill way east on Bourbon is great for greasy food very late, and the Jean Lafitte sp? bar nearby, next to? is cool. I was usually too bluto to do anything normal, but second the qtr being real quiet, beautiful mid-morning. the D-Day museum was pretty good several years ago and will eat up several hours of your time. If you have money it is one of the prettiest, laid back cities to live in.

Seafood: a local favorite (and mine too) are Charbroiled Oysters. The two popular places are AcmeOyster House http://www.acmeoyster.com/ which is just off Bourbon St and Drago's http://www.dragosrestaurant.com/ which is near the Casino.
Normally I am not big on oysters but these, cooked with a ton of butter, a ton of garlic and a ton of parm-cheese are to die for (or maybe die from!)

Be ready for this con/street game...
Copied and pasted:

This is the classic New Orleans street con...a homeless person will approach you and say " I bet you I can tell you where you got them shoes
These guys really stay along Bourbon Street during the day and move over to Royal Street and Jackson Square at night. The best way to deal with them is say "no, thanks", don't make any eye contact, and keep walking. They are usually harmless. The only time I ever saw this get out of hand was when a drunk frat guy was looking for a fight and this panhandler was asking the wrong question at the wrong time.
Again, the correct answer is "On my feet, on the streets of New Orleans", if you feel compelled to answer.
You can't avoid this in the French Quarter although it is a lot less prevelant since Katrina.

jrw1621 wrote: Seafood: a local favorite (and mine too) are Charbroiled Oysters....

Hmmm, I have always referred to Oysters and other shell fish as the "oil filter" of the sea, normally that is meant to be figurative, now, maybe it is literal.

Shell fish in New Orleans, good idea?

Besides eating (which I'm a BIG fan of in NOLA), go see the D-Day museum. It's pretty cool. If you enjoy war movies- plan on spending quite a while there- there's a lot of D-Day's covered there.

http://www.ddaymuseum.org/

aircooled wrote:

jrw1621 wrote: Seafood: a local favorite (and mine too) are Charbroiled Oysters....

Hmmm, I have always referred to Oysters and other shell fish as the "oil filter" of the sea, normally that is meant to be figurative, now, maybe it is literal. Shell fish in New Orleans, good idea?

Ask me again on Wednesday morning. Stop one of my 4600-mile road trip is NOLA; we expect to be there early tomorrow evening.

Charbroiled Oysters sound delicious, and I've ingested enough motor oil that a few more ounces couldn't hurt too badly...right?

Start getting into the music scene now by listening to wwoz on your computer or smartphone.
http://www.wwoz.org/

Also be sure to check out their schedule of live performances.

Once you get over Bourbon street being too touristy, head to Frenchman's St. The music is better and the prices cheaper. Try something like The Spotted Cat Music Club.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-spotted-cat-music-club-new-orleans
http://maps.google.com/?q=623+Frenchman+Street%2C+New+Orleans%2C+LA%2C+70116%2C+us
Should be 3 bands per night with a 4pm, 6pm and 10pm band. 10pm will be the best!

Want to know what it looks like?
Here are 20 different live feed cameras mostly around the quarter.
http://neworleanswebsites.com/cat/en/lc/lc.html

Great ideas, guys. Thanks! I'll be sure to come back to this thread often when I'm there.

Keep them coming! Especially the food ideas.

Did I mention I'm doing this trip basically for free? Airline miles and hotel points are paying for most of it.

Dragon's Den Social Aid and Pleasure Club.

That's what hit me in the face when I opened the google map for what jrw1621 purports to be a map to The Spotted Cat Music Club. We know what you were really wanting to tell us.

That makes me feel dirty just to type it. Sunday is Vampire night. I wonder when the Zombies come out?

Interesting. I guess my link was bad. So bad it is good if that is your thing.
I updated and placed a link from Yelp for The Spotted Cat.

One very key legal thing to be aware of: no open container law. If a bar asks if you want a to-go cup, it just means plastic (no glass in the street) so you can walk around with your adult beverage of choice. The music scene there is amazing as almost every bar I went to had a live band playing. Also, see Irvin Mayfield Jr. play. That man is amazing on a trumpet.

Also to note; you can carry a drink out of a bar (in plastic) but you can not carry a drink into a bar.

If you're not from a state with marshes, swamps, etc., I reccommend you rent a ragtop and take a drive up Hwy. 90 out to Biloxi or Gulfport, MS. It's a sweet back road ride through bayou county that ends up on the beach. It's only an hour or so each way, and if you're in a hurry you can take the slab back to N.O. I grew up in New Orleans and loved taking that ride to get out of the city, see some nature, see the gulf, etc. I'd take Esplanade from the Quater out to Broad St., head east & don't stop till you hit Biloxi. Sweet ride. If I was home now, I'd steal my sister's Sky and take that trip.

Eat breakfast at Mother's.

If you're Catholic, go to the Center of Jesus the Lord in the French Quarter if you enjoy a charismatic Mass. If you prefer a more traditional Mass, there's St. Patrick's that does a Tridentine Mass every Sunday.

If you're not Catholic and want to go to services, I can't really help you too much.

you can probably get head from a tranny for about $3. if that's your bag.