Know&Go Guide: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
I fell in love with New Orleans the first time I visited and the desire to return remains strong.
In the way of all great destinations, NOLA will always deliver a different experience depending on where you stay, the time of year and your expectations. This is no one trick pony! As the slogan goes, “Full of tradition, never traditional.”
Strolling the French Quarter, inhaling the fragrance of the Sweet Olive trees in bloom and stopping at Café du Monde for beignets & café au lait after eating the best shrimp po’boy* in the worldˆ. That’s New Orleans to me.
New Orleans is divided into distinctive historic neighbourhoods, all with their own personality. The most popular are:
The Garden District (part of Uptown) has wide, tree-lined boulevards and grand garden fronted mansions. Visit with the St Charles streetcar line.
The Tremé is the oldest African-American neighbourhood, full of jazz clubs and soul food.
Marigny/Bywater is where the arts reign, with galleries, bars and Cajun bistros.
The French Quarter (The Vieux Carre) is the oldest and most famous, where you’ll find Bourbon Street, wrought iron balconies and charming Creole cottages.
By the way, those famous townhouses in the French Quarter are not French. When the Great New Orleans Fire destroyed the old wooden buildings in 1788, Louisiana was under Spanish rule (1763–1801), so they were rebuilt with brick in the Spanish-style, complete with internal courtyards and cast iron balconies facing the street.
I saw and experienced more in four days than I had previously, thanks to my amazing tourism host – Diana Hernandez of New Orleans & Company – and her unending enthusiasm and love for her home town.
Even after three visits, I still haven’t scratched the surface. It’s got that French mystique, like its cousin, Paris… it tantalises but never fully reveals itself. The logical next step is to spend one month living and breathing the Crescent City, to get a little under its skin… stay tuned.
*Po’boy or poor boy is a Louisiana invention dating from the early 20th century. It consists of delicious, locally made crusty outside, soft inside baguette-style bread filled with a variety of meat – roast beef, ham or meatballs – or seafood – oysters, crabs or shrimps. The story goes that the name comes from a time when the streetcar conductors were on strike and when a conductor entered the sandwich shop, owned by Benny and Clovis Martin, someone shouted: "Here comes another po-boy"!
ˆThe effort to confirm said title holder is a challenge I will gladly undertake once I’m living in the Crescent City.
Experience
Flutterbys, scarabs & bees, oh my!
Part of the Audubon Nature Institute: Audubon Zoo, Audubon Park, Audubon Aquarium and Audubon Insectarium; the latter two share a vast building on the riverside near the Canal Street ferry terminal. While I walked quite quickly through the aquarium, seeing the usual suspects, I found the Insectarium absolutely fascinating. I guarantee that you will learn things, be ‘ooked out’ by too many legs and leave with a healthy appreciation for these much misunderstood and undervalued creatures.
After all, “they are most diverse group of animals on the planet and make up more than half of all known species,” outnumber us 200 million to one and are vital to the health of the planet, while we are welcome to leave any time soon before we destroy it completely. Also, predictions say we will be eating an insect heavy diet in the not-to-distant future. In light of that, I tried a snicker doodle aptly rename Beetle Doodle and it was crunchy but delicious!
Open daily 10am-5pm. Entry fee with combined tickets available.
Where it’s always cocktail time!
A young Haitian pharmacist, Antoine Peychaud, arrived in New Orleans and opened an apothecary shop on Royal Street in 1834. He concocted a medicinal bitters to treat all sorts of ailments – the now iconic Peychaud Bitters – and in 1850 was inspired to mix them with his favorite imported French tipple, Sazerac-de-Forge Cognac also known for its *cough* medicinal qualities… et voilà the original Sazerac Cocktail was born.
While it’s free to enter, you would be advised to book a self-guided tour that takes you through three floors: the distillery; ‘Art of Our Craft’ allows you to create your own virtual cocktail and taste some IRL; and the heritage exhibit shows you the history of the cocktail and you’ll learn how prohibition failed in NOLA!
You’ll learn and taste this and more as you tour this impressive building.
Open daily 11am-6pm.
Ride the “oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world”
More than just a great way to get around, New Orleans’ distinctive streetcars (trams/trolleys) add fun to your visit. For the bargain price of $1.25 (exact change or buy a Jazzy Pass) you can ride this mobile national monument – a distinction shared with San Francisco’s cable cars. There are four lines: Canal Street, Riverfront, Rampart/Loyola and St Charles.
Canal Street, which forms the border between the Central Business District and the French Quarter – and is one of the widest street in the nation at 52 metres (171 feet) – the red streetcars travel between the riverfront and the cemeteries or City Park (read the front window signs to avoid getting on the wrong one).
Riverfront starts at Union Passenger Terminal (UPT [Amtrak]) runs to and down Canal Street to the Aquarium then alongside the Mississippi River to the French Market.
Rampart/Loyola starts at UPT travels above the French Quarter and ends in the Marigny neighbourhood.
St Charles is the most historic line, dating from 1835, with its striking dark green Perley Thomas cars that date from 1923. It’s also the longest ride taking forty minutes to travel 20 km (13 miles) one way between Uptown (Carondelet Avenue) and the Central Business District (Canal Street).
Fun Fact: The Desire line, immortalized in Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, ran through the French Quarter to its namesake street, in the Bywater district, until 1948.
Massive green space housing cultural treasures
This massive 5.3 km square (1,300 acre) public park was founded in 1854 and established as the City Park in 1891. Knowing how American’s love comparing everything to the size of New York’s Central Park – in the way Europeans compare country size to Belgium, which has always baffled me – this one is approximately 50% larger!
The park’s existing infrastructure was created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Inside the park you’ll find many, many things to do, with attractions including the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Botanical Garden and a Café du Monde outpost along with the “world's largest collection of mature live oak trees,” some older than 600 years.
Fun Fact: Back in the 1800s, when such things were fashionable, this was the city’s primary dueling ground. Duels were a way in which (mostly wealthy) men would settle disagreements and insults with swords or pistols. I bet those trees have some stories!
Open daily 5am-10pm.
Lovely gardens in City Park
This 4 hectare (10 acre) garden is easily walkable and worth the effort if you are visiting the other attractions in City Park. It began life as the Rose Garden, built by the WPA in 1935-36, and the Art Deco touches are everywhere, “influenced by three renowned talents of the era: architect Richard Koch, landscape architect William Wiedorn and sculptor Enrique Alférez.” The latter is represented by the largest collection of his outdoor sculptures is the world, scattered through the garden.
Open Tue-Thur & Sun 10am–4.30pm, Friday & Saturday 10am–4pm. Entry fee.
Comprehensive tour of the famed Garden District
This walking tour was led by local scion DeAnna DuPont, who knows everything about the GD. While it felt like we walked all over the world, we actually covered just a small portion of the vast Garden District.
She showed us St Louis #1 Cemetery, pointed out the oldest house in the district, those with famous owners and told us the sad yet heartwarming story of the Sunflower Girl statue, among many other fabulous stories.
Tours 10.30am and/or 2pm. Bookings essential.
Ride the carousel or sit still and enjoy the music
The Carousel Bar opened in 1949 and was frequented by Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote (who claimed [erroneously] to have been born in the hotel) and Ernest Hemmingway, among many others, back in the day. It literally is a carousel and you can drink your cocktails while rotating slowly, if you can get a seat. (Whether you’re still rotating once you leave relates to your level of consumption.)
The lounge is a more relaxed option with stationary seats, a good selection of nibbles and a vast cocktail menu accompanied by live music on Wednesday-Saturday evenings.
Open daily 11am-12am.
A new way to see New Orleans, with amazing cutting edge touch-free interactive exhibits
This amazing attraction sits on the top floor of the tower at the top of Canal Street. While it bills itself as an observation deck – and the 360º views are fabulous – it’s the interactive cultural experience that really captured me. It starts when you step onto the elevator that shows a virtual reality representation of the history of the city, that can make your head spin, as you move up.
Once at the top, you can delve into the history of New Orleans by choosing avatars of important characters, who’ve influenced the city, to tell you their story; watch a beautifully animated film about the Mississippi River; learn recipes from famous local chefs in The Story Café; compose your own jazz masterpiece; or create a virtual Mardis Gras costume; to name but a few. After that go out onto the deck and see the city IRL.
Open daily 10am-6pm. Entry fee.
So many angels!
This walking tour with the learned Sally Asher was excellent. She’s a great storehouse of knowledge about these distinctive burial grounds. This cemetery, established in 1854, is younger than its predecessors, 1 and 2, but is twice their combined size and is a very active burial site.
Over 90 minutes, we learned about the different types of tombs, what it means if an angel is carrying flowers pointing downwards and heard many stories including a sea tragedy and all about the famous ‘spite’ tomb, which looks like a four-year-old’s idea of a castle.
Tours available daily 10am and/or 1.30pm. Bookings essential.
Little pocket of happiness
This free attraction is nestled in City Park, between NOMA and the Botanical Garden. As you stroll along the paths, strange and wonderful things appear and disappear. With over 90 pieces on display in the 4.5 hectare (11 acre) garden, you could wander for hours trying to see them all. The website allows you to learn more about the pieces, once you’ve found your favourites.
Open Apr-Sep 10am-6pm, Oct-Mar 10am-5pm.
Walking with a local historian
I love a good walking tour, they give you a sense of place and you learn about things you would otherwise walk past. I took the Twilight tour and ours was a congenial group, lead by the exuberant David Higgins.
Daily at 10.30am and 5pm. Bookings essential.
40,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of art
It all started in 1910 when wealthy sugar baron, Isaac Delgado, gave the city $150,000 (nearly $5M today) to building an art museum. The resulting Beaux Art building held just nine works of art when it opened in 1911... so things have improved since then!
It holds a truly impressive and eclectic collection of which I was particularly taken with Vigée LeBrun’s portrait of Marie Antoinette. It was purchased in 1985 for $500,000 to commemorate the museum’s 75th anniversary. That’s a damn fine birthday present!
Open Tue–Sun 10am–5pm; Wed 12–7 pm. Entry fee.
Nighttime cruise along the Mississippi
Let me say upfront: I’m not a fan of such cruises and, as I’ve said before, your expectations affect your experience. Having said that, in all my travels and the many of these that I’ve done, some have pleasantly surprised me… unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them. But, hey, that’s just my opinion. There were probably people on board having a grand time.
I did enjoy the mesmeric and rhythmic swish of the paddles propelling us along the majestic Mississippi River and seeing the crescent moon over the Crescent City as the sun went down.
I wish I had done the daytime Historical River Cruise, which is much more my speed and gets rave reviews online.
Open 6:45-9pm. Bookings essential.
Consume
Living #ThatBrunchLife
It doesn’t matter what time you got to bed last night, this is a great place to start the new day. They do brunch big here and I do mean big. I shared plates with my tourism host and we only managed to make a small dent in the huge portions of The Trifecta – a sampler of their signature Benedicts – and Bananas Foster French toast.
We ate at the Decatur location, one of six around the city with more scattered throughout the South. You can’t go wrong choosing a Ruby Slipper for brunch, just bring your appetite or three friends.
Open Mon-Fri 7am-2pm, Sat-Sun 7am-3pm.
Traditional restaurant in the French Quarter
This popular restaurant just off Jackson Square boasts a courtyard, main dining room, Drawing Room lounge and apparently the “best balcony for dining and drinking” in town.
My tourism host and I sat in the main dining room and shared the Maison salad, fried oyster pan roast, shrimp & grits, ending with a classic crème brûlee.
Open Brunch Wed-Sun 11am-3pm, Dinner Wed-Sun 3-9pm.
The place to celebrate milestones in NOLA
I had heard about this venerable venue in the Garden District, opened in 1893, but this was my first time under its famed striped awnings for the Sunday Jazz Brunch. Owned and run since 1969 by the prolific Brennan Family – owners of 22 establishments in New Orleans alone – who are responsible for the distinctive ‘Commander's Blue’ exterior, originated in 1974.
With a strolling band, revellers conga-lining through from the upstairs dining rooms and balloons on every table, this is the ultimate party palace where the great and good of New Orleans celebrate every possible milestone and anniversary.
I had the most fabulous time with amazing food stretching over three hours! Starting with the famous (and notoriously difficult to to make) Ramos Gin Fizz, we had course after course, including but not limited to Shrimp Remoulade, Chicken Skins with Shrimp & Tasso, Pork Tenderloin and that most traditional of Southern desserts, Banana Pudding.
Every trip to New Orleans demands a visit here.
Open Lunch Thu-Fri 11.30am-the last seating varies on the season, Dinner Mon-Wed 5,30pm, Thu-Fri 6pm-the last seating varies on the season. Jazz Brunch Sat 11am-2.30pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm.
Fabulous food at the Chef’s Table
This was a fun dinner with my amazing tourism host, Diana of New Orleans & Company. We watched our dishes being created and enjoyed Oyster Three Ways: poached in double cream, crispy fried and oyster dressing in vol-au-vent; and massive, perfectly cooked brown-butter seared scallops with cracked corn grits in a very convivial atmosphere.
Open Mon & Wed-Thu 3-9pm, Fri 3-10pm, Sat brunch & dinner 11am-10pm, Sun Drag brunch & dinner 11am-9pm.
Postprandial frozen Irish Coffee anyone? Yes, please!
Strolling here after the magnificent dinner at Saint John, we had the perfect nightcap of frozen Irish coffee at Molly’s – a tiny dive bar that straddles the French Quarter/French Market border – a famous haunt of media types since the 1970s.
Open Mon-Wed 10am-3am, Thu-Sun 10am-6am.
Indulgent drinks and sweet treats
PJ’s have been serving the community since 1978. I stopped into the Magazine Street Garden District location – one of many in the city – as it was the starting point for the Two Chicks Walking Tour, which I travelled to via the St Charles streetcar. Naturally, I had to partake of a libation while waiting and I chose a cold Caramel Velvet Cream which tasted as good as it sounds. While it was being made, I chatted with a few locals who raved about their food.
Open 6am-7pm.
Oldest family-owned restaurant in the city, serving good, unpretentious food
This is the kind of place that most people would walk past, however, I had a local with me and, after stating that my go to food in New Orleans is a shrimp po’boy, we turned up here. This local hangout is the oldest family-owned restaurant in town. The half sandwich & gumbo special fueled more walking and shopping in The French Quarter.
It’s cash only and looks like it hasn’t changed in about 40 years. For all that, the food is good, local approved and hits the spot.
Open Thu-Sun 8am-3.30pm.
Iconic Bourbon Street bar, birthplace of The Hurricane
There are elements of Harry Potter to this place. You enter via a very narrow carriageway and it opens up like it’s had an Undetectable Extension Charm placed upon it with room after room appearing and, at the centre of the vast patio, you find the Flaming Fountain, resembling the Goblet of Fire!
This deceptively vast institution holds three venues: the main bar - where 500 beer steins hang from the ceiling; the patio - a 371 sqm (4,000 sq ft) expanse; and piano bar – home to The Original Dueling Piano Show.
Pat O’Brien’s began as a speakeasy on Peters Street and opened as a legit bar in 1933, after prohibition was repealed. In the 1940s, when American hard liquor was difficult to come by, Caribbean rum was plentiful and the famous Hurricane cocktail was born. Can you say you’ve been to New Orleans if you haven’t been here?
Open Wed-Thu & Sunday 12pm-12am, Fri-Sat 12pm-2am
A sacred ritual
No visit to New Orleans is complete without sitting at a table under the famous and green and white striped awnings of this bastion to fried goodness. The Jackson Square location is open 24/7 and don’t be fooled by the long lines, that’s for people getting takeaway.
Bring cash, walk in, sit down at a free table and order the classic: beignets & cafe au lait. Then, if you’re interested, you can walk behind the building to see the beignets being made (see above).
Open 24/7.
Little piece of Paris near City Park
It took 15 hot minutes to walk here from City Park on a glorious late summer’s day but it was worth it to get to this French bistro plucked from one of Degas’ paintings.
My delicious lunch of Ravioli d'Ecrevisse (ravioli stuffed with Louisiana crawfish) and their famous Ile Flottante was magnifique!
Open Brunch: Sat & Sun 10.30am-3pm, Lunch: Wed-Fri 11am-3pm, Dinner: Tue-Thu & Sun 5pm-9.30pm.
Stop and sit a while
City Park is a huge edifice with many attractions, so it makes sense to stop and refresh yourself with New Orleans’ signature pastry.
There are quite a few locations around the city and surrounds, including one at the airport, which I naturally had to visit as my last stop before my flight out.
Open Sun-Thu 8am-10pm, Fri-Sat 8am-11pm.
Purchase
Fabulous ‘little bit of everything’ store in the French Quarter
I love this store. It’s full of whimsy and fabulous products. I come here each time I’m in town. My first purchase, ten years ago, was a super soft printed T-shirt, one of their original designs and the product that launched the whole enterprise. It was so nice that it went missing from my hotel room in Miami less than two weeks later!
They have nine locations throughout the city and surrounds plus an outlet at Louis Armstrong International Airport, for those last minute purchases.
Open Chartres Street Mon-Thu 10am-7pm, Fri-Sun 9am-7pm,
MSY airport daily 5am-7pm.
Perfuming the French Quarter for 170 years
I’ve mentioned my love of the Sweet Olive tree, which is dotted around the Quarter, and when I told this to my tourism host, she directed me here to purchase a fragrance upon which it is based. They’ve been at this since 1843, so I figured I was in safe hands.
Travelling carry-on only meant I had to restrict myself, so the travel roll-on was the perfect purchase and I’m wearing it as I type.
Open Thu-Mon 10am-5pm.
Rest
Living the high life on Royal Street
This classic and elegant fifth-generation family-owned hotel, with its red neon sign shining high above the streets of New Orleans, has been a mainstay for the great and the good since 1886. Most people know it for its famous Carousel Bar (post above), but its been connected to so many literary greats – for having them stay and for being featured in their works – that it is lauded as one of only three Literary Landmarks in the USA.
I stayed on the 12th floor in the Iberville Tower in a Superior King with views over the city. My room was total luxury and it pained me to leave it as often as I did on this very frenetic visit to the Crescent City. While I didn’t dine in Criollo, the hotel’s restaurant, I did swim in the rooftop pool and have a drink in the Carousel Lounge. The friendly doormen greet you day & night and give great directions, because its ideal location means that you can walk everywhere within the French Quarter or jump on the Canal Street streetcar, just two blocks away, to go further afield.
This guide details all of the things The Packed Bag experienced. Please see New Orleans & Company for more.