Well hello! This is a little throwback post. About a year ago, I visited the lovely New Orleans, LA. My dad had a work trip and my whole family decided to tag along. I wasn’t blogging at the time, so I thought I’d revisit my old photos and notes to give you all a little travel guide for this beautiful city. Before the trip, I had made an extensive google doc itinerary and I made my family follow it throughout our visit. They all thought I was a bit crazy for planning down to the hour, but I wanted to make the most out of the 4 days we were there! Like most plans, some adaptions and last minute adjustments were made but for the most part, my schedule worked out and we got to experience almost everything we had wanted to!

 

 

In my opinion, 4 days is a great amount of time to spend in NOLA. If you take advantage of the open alcohol policy as I did, you’ll be happy to recover back at home ASAP. Unless you are planning a Mardi Gras trip, I suggest visiting in the fall months. We went in September and the weather was still in the 80’s. I would love to visit next time in October for Halloween. It seems like the perfect spooky place with the cemeteries, voodoo magic, fortune tellers, and such. They also have their Voodoo Music Festival every October that I would LOVE to attend one day.

I had a great time visiting New Orleans, La and hope to return one day! Maybe next time with a group of friends (sorry mom and dad). It is becoming a popular area for bachelor and bachelorette parties for all you future married people out there.

 

I spent weeks researching the best places to visit in New Orleans so instead of doing what I did, you can save so much time and just follow along with this itinerary! I hope this guide gives you some ideas for your New Orleans adventure!

 

 

Day 1

• Check into your hotel

  • We stayed in the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel. It was the best location with walking distance to so many great places and close to several streetcar stations. The hotel also had two pools!

 

• Get a Po’Boy sandwich

  • Louisiana’s traditional sandwich. We walked from our hotel to Mother’s which was a little hole in the wall restaurant that really gave us an authentic Louisiana feel. The food there was pretty good! I don’t like seafood so I got the chicken po’boy. Here’s an article for more of the best Po’boys around town.

 

 

• Relax at your hotel

  •  Swim at the hotel pool, take a nap, do your hair and makeup
  • You’re gonna need a bit of calm before you head out for the night’s adventure.

 

• Dinner

  • Choose to eat at the hotel or walk to a nearby restaurant. My family is big on trying local beers while traveling so we ate at Crescent City Brewhouse. The beer was good; the fried alligator was weird.

 

 

• Bourbon Street

  • Yes, it sucks. It smells like urine, there’s basically only club music, and you’re bound to see at least one drunken fight, but you still have to go. Just for one night.
  • While you’re there, make sure to stop in Tropical Isle for a grenade or a shark attack, Pat O’Brien’s for dueling pianos, Lafitte’sfor some old school “Nawlin” vibes, and The Dungeon for an interesting experience. If you’re lucky, you may find a random bar that’s actually playing jazz music.

 

 

• Late night snack

  • We ended up at Clover Grill, a “charming” little diner which was so perfect and exactly what I needed. 

 

Day 2

• BEIGNETS

  • Head to the famous Café Du Monde for some fried dough covered in powdered sugar and a café au lait.
  • There will probably be a line, you must wait in said line. Do not wear black (made that mistake).
  • Pro tip: behind the Hilton, in the outlet mall, there is a mini Cafe Du Monde stand that is way less crowded!
  • Cafe Beignet is another option which is a bit more insta-worthy in my opinion.

 

 

• Explore the French Quarter

  • Walk around Jackson Park
  • Check out the French Market
  • Talk with some locals

 

• Lunch

  • Some good options to check out: Cafe Amelie, Stanley Restaurant, The Old Coffee Pot Restaurant, The Court of Two Sisters 
  • (We actually grabbed some quick snacks from the hotel this day, but these are all places I have researched and one would love to go to.)

 

• Museum of Death

  • My brother and I were so intrigued by this and had to check it out. Being an avid criminal minds fan, my favorite part was all of the handwritten letters from famous serial killers/prison inmates. 
  • There were a few gory parts and a disturbing video in a secluded back room of people dying in tragic ways while happy instrumental music plays.

 

 

• Dinner (if you can eat)

  • Honestly, my stomach felt a bit queasy after the museum so be prepared for that.
  • If you happen to have a stomach of steel some places close to the museum include: Restaurant R’evolution, Hard Rock Cafe, Remoulade, The Bombay Club 

 

• Frenchman Street

  • Where the real nightlife is at. A must if you are looking for some real music.
  • Frenchman’s street is supposedly the new “Bourbon Street”. Check out this post for more on this.
  • The vibe was so much better and you can actually hear amazing jazz and blues music filling the streets from every bar as you are walking through. (how I always pictured New Orleans in my head)
  • Depending on where you are staying, you will probably have to uber here and back.
  • Our favorite bars we stopped in were: The Spotted Cat, The Maison, and Blue Nile.

 

 

 

Day 3

• StreetCar Ride

  • Hop on the street car to Magazine Street. We hopped on at the St. Charles and Poydras station and got off around Jackson Ave.
  • As you are walking down towards Magazine Street, stop and check out the creepy Buckner Mansion as seen in American Horror Story.

 

 

• Explore the Garden District

  • Be amazed at the beautiful architecture, pop into cute shops, and eat some more.

• Food to consider:

  • District Donuts Sliders and Brews– good cheeseburgers, great donuts, tasty coffee.
  • Steins Market and Deli– huge beer room in the back where you can purchase hard to find beers or some good local finds
  • Dat Dog– the craziest hot dogs you’ll ever see
  • Araña Taqueria Y Cantina– 3pm-7pm half off all drinks and half off all of the tacos 
  • Commander’s Palace– 25¢ martinis available during lunch (11:30am- 2pm)
  • Basin Seafood and Spirits– Happy hour is weekdays 3pm to 6pm and every Monday from 3pm to 10pm is $.50 raw oysters
  • Sucre– gelato, macaroons, and little cakes (Pro tip: they give any broken macaroons away for free!)

 

 

• Visit the Lafayette Cemetery
  • If you’re interested in learning more about New Orleans’ history and its past occupants, take a guided tour.

 

 

• Streetcar back to French Quarter

 

• Evening Drinks/Snacks

  • Some cutesy bars that are worth checking out. 
  • Carousel Bar– a bar that is an actual rotating carousel. Yeah. This place gets super crowded and you’ll be lucky if you get to sit on the carousel but either way it’s a snazzy place.
  • Tiki Tolteca– A super cute tiki bar with some unique drinks. The bartenders were super friendly too.
  • If you’re staying at one of the hipper hotels, you probably have a cool rooftop bar such as Monkey Board in the Troubadour Hotel or the rooftop at the Catahoula Hotel.
  • Next time I visit, I must go to the Bakery Bar. We never ventured over to that area of town but just check out that rainbow cake…It looks amazing!

 

• We had wanted to check out some real authentic Jazz either at Preservation Hall or The Jazz Market but we ended up going back to Frenchman Street because we had such a good time there!

 

Day 4

• Bruch at Willa Jean

  • A cute and calm cafe for a nice brunch
  • (Where I wanted to go but was too hungover so just went with coffee from P.J.’s).

 

• Hit up some last minute gift shops/walk around Mall

  • The Hilton Riverside Hotel connects to the Outlook Collection Riverwalk Mall which features tons of great outlet stores and unique shops.
  • We stopped in the NOLA Tropical Winery for a tasting and some wine slushies to go. Would recommend! The do have shipping in case you want to have some delicious wine ready at your door for your return. 

 

 

• Drip Affogate for dessert and coffee

  • Sadly, we ran out of time for this but I think it would be the perfect ending for this trip.
  • A new dessert experience that they like to call “coffee and ice cream’s love child”. They have a flight where you can try four of their best selling ice cream/coffee drip combinations! Definitely going here next visit.

 

• Hop on your plane home and SLEEP!

 

 

Have you been to New Orleans? If so, give me your opinions! Love it or hate it?