If you had 2 days in New Orleans what would you do/see?

The routine when I was in college was to find dinner somewhere, then head over to Pat O’Briens and drink three Hurricanes near the large hurricane lamp. Then stumble to Cafe DuMonde for beignets and coffee. After sobering up, find the guy with the giant telescopes near the Cafe and pay him to look at planets.

Make sure to do step 2 before step 3. If you do step 3 first, when you awake hung over the next morning your first thought will be “why do I remember seeing Saturn?”

New Orleans is still around? I thought it got blown out to sea.

Oooh one more thing and this is most important:

Before you go, play Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.

Thanks for the advice guys. We’ll try a couple of these suggestions.

Don’t go into the sewers to beat up the rats, no matter what those guys with green exclamation points over their heads say. Those rats are fricken huge!

I think Oak Alley took a bad hit by Katrina. I’d call ahead on that one.

The New Orleans Museum of Art also had a very strong Fabergé egg collection, if you’re interested in that. Unfortunately, I know they are in the process of breaking up the collection and re-doing the gallery. The gallery was supposed to re-open sometime in February (I don’t know how much would be left), so I’d call ahead on this, too. Incidentally, if you do go to the NOMA, they have very impressive collection of Chinese snuff bottles, as well.

All the best ramps are on top of the buildings. Rail-slide up there and half pipe for DAYS!

Let us know how it goes when you get back.

Arise!

I need the Qt3 Hivemind to help me plan a memorable vacation for me and my spouse. My wife - who gave birth last year to our 2nd child - and I are taking our first adult-only vacation in more than 5 years in July. After spending the last 8 months taking care of a fussy baby, I want to help my wife get away and feel like an adult again. New Orleans is the choice, because airline tickets were free (vouchers!) and the hotel is free (points!).

We’re staying here: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/msyla-new-orleans-marriott/

That’s the Marriott on Canal Street. We’re flying in mid-afternoon on a Sunday and leaving first thing Wednesday morning. So that’s 2 1/2 days in NO and 3 nights. We’ve never been and I’m looking for suggestions on stuff to do and places to eat.

  1. We’re not big into getting drunk or hanging around drunk people. Yes, that makes NO an interesting choice, but just consider we’ll be back in the hotel by 10:00 or so. With the baby getting my wife up every night, she’ll appreciate the opportunity to get extra rest.

  2. We don’t want to eat at any tourist traps. That means no Cafe du Monde, Pat O’Briens, Paul Prudhommes, etc.

  3. We don’t dress up. Shorts and a polo, max.

  4. We do like less-expensive, out-of-the-way shops and restaurants. I know wandering into the wrong area of NO can get you shot, but we do like places where we can eat or shop at bargain prices.

The to-do shortlist has:

Aquarium of the Americas
Graveyard tour / walking tour
St. Charles streetcar
Superdome tour
Riverwalk

The to-eat shortlist has:
Semonila (though it’s not within walking distance)

Walk around the Quarter, streets like Royal are (relatively) quiet and have a ton of small shops, cafes and galleries. Actually, most of the quarter is like that- just avoid Bourbon St. It’s been about 10 years since I was there, and I was mostly drunk, but that’s what I remember.

My favourite thing was the swamp tour, whereupon we saw a ton of alligators plus assorted other wildlife. The paddlewheel ride along the Missisip was good too.

I thought beignets were just shitty donuts, but I quite liked gumbo and the seafood platter had softshell crab, crawfish and catfish. If you’re like me and are trying to eat your way through the animal kingdom, you’ll also want to get an alligator po-boy, even though it’s just kind of rubbery and tasteless.

Definitely see the aquarium, and the zoo is also pretty good (and is at the end of the trolley ride along St Charles.

“We don’t like to do any of the things New Orleans does well.” Hmm, interesting choice of destination.

I remember the Zoo was a lot of fun there last time I went, but that was pre-Katrina. Not sure how it is now.

You’re fracking nuts if you don’t do beignets at Cafe Du Monde, even if it does cater to lowly tourists.

I would find a place with a great dixieland jazz band and set up camp there.

I just LOVE that shit.

Not really, unless you think the only thing NO does well is getting people drunk. Neither my wife and I are heavy drinkers…she hardly drinks at all. The rest of that list should be easy to understand - we just want to stay casual and steer clear of the tourist traps.

As far as Cafe Du Monde is concerned, I’ve found that for every named-touristy restaurant like that, there’s 10 places within a mile that do it better and cheaper. Maybe it’s the exception to that rule, though. So if you feel that they’re really that awesome, I’ll throw that on the list. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

It’s not.

It’s not the exception to the rule? So there are other places that do the beignets just as well?

Oh, I don’t know about that. But it’s not awesome.

Here is my suggestion for finding places to eat in any city you are visiting.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/choose

Ive found tons of great places around where I live ive never heard of to try.

Cafe Du Monde isn’t really a tourist trap, it’s just famous. You shouldn’t deny yourself the unique pleasure of a stop there one morning for beignets and coffee. So good.

I agree with Bluto, Bourbon Street is it’s own little world nestled into the French Quarter. The rest of the Quarter is a lot more sedate, with lots of cool architecture, Jackson Square, great shops (Royal Street is good for this) and plenty of non-touristy places to eat and drink. Don’t let Bourbon turn you off to the rest of the Quarter.

DO ride the St. Charles Line (street car) down to the Garden District, especially if you’re interested in taking one of the many walking tours of the amazing homes there. As far as I know, the Garden District was largely unscathed by Katrina, so it should be back to it’s full beauty once again.

Please get some fudge from the guys at riverwalk so that I may enjoy it vicariously through you.