Stuff to do in New Orleans!

bioreboot

Hey guys,

So I will be in New Orleans for the first time next month and wanted to hear some feedback about what people like to do when they visit besides getting smashed on Mardi Gras. Places/Activities/best poboy joints welcome, and especially places that will let me sample the distinctive New Orleans cuisine while being kind to my wallet.

Thank you!

bsjezz

get thee to frenchman street, right around the junction with chartres. amazing music all the damned time - and it's close enough to the tourist-friendly part of town that you'll probably be able to walk back to your hotel later on

this place has the most delicious spicy fried okra and fine, cheap poboys.

if you're interested in the food culture, i'd highly recommend stopping by here. i think they have morning and afternoon drop-in classes and you get a great feed out of it, too.

i got some great advice previously also

zepherin

Frenchman street is awesome.

I like tours of distilleries and beer breweries personally.

For New Orleans My favorite tour was of the Old New Orleans distillery. It was 10 bucks, but it was just great. They had a complimentary shuttle to and from there, and the tour was great.
http://www.oldneworleansrum.com/tour-the-distillery/

Erin The Red

Go to the crescent city brewhouse. It's near the aquarium. They have great food and make their own beer

bioreboot

bsjezz wrote: »

i got some great advice previously also

This is perfect! Thank you!

CptHamilton

It's not especially cheap but the Court of Two Sisters has the best turtle soup and hurricanes I had in the city. They do a brunch buffet that's pretty pricey but has a lot of excellent food and is all you can eat.

The Gray Line walking cocktail tour is pretty good if you like drinking and history. It doesn't actually include any cocktails in the price; they just walk you around town telling you about the history of various drinks and drinking establishments with stops to buy signature drinks if you want. It was better than I expected out of such a thing.

CelestialBadger

Go on a cemetery tour. The cemeteries are much more interesting with a few anecdotes attached.

LaPuzza

Eat the whole time. I ate like 4 meals a day, and my regret is that I didn't eat as many times as I should have. For real. They take their food seriously everywhere you go down there, and the only meals that I had that weren't great were McDonalds and 2 of the newer fancy places in town.

For example, I was there with someone from Philly. She said that the cheesesteak place on Burbon Street was by far the best she'd had outside of Philly and could hold its won with some natives. They don't mess around when it comes to food.

I second the Court of the Two Sisters suggestion for a po' boy.

I also regret not going to St. Louis. Cemetary #1, but I hear that's not the best part of town.

CelestialBadger

LaPuzza wrote: »

I also regret not going to St. Louis. Cemetary #1, but I hear that's not the best part of town.

If you go with a tour group, it shouldn't matter. It's only a couple blocks from the nice part of town.

Anon-Alabaster

The fun of New Orleans is in getting lost in it. Go to the Garden District and ask for directions to the nearest local restaurant. That will get you where you want to be. From there, have an adventure.

Octanku

My wife and I went for our Honeymoon and had a blast. One of the places we meant to see but never quite made it to was Frenchman street. Locals said it was the place to be. We had the most fun simply walking around the French Quarter. We stayed away from Bourbon Street because there wasn't much there for us. Just seemed to be a bunch of tourists getting sloshed and strip joints.

Just about every other thing we saw in the French Quarter was pretty neat. You can find yourself getting lost in the shops and street performers and not really spending much. There are lots of artists selling their stuff in Jackson Square. Some of it was pretty awesome looking. Most of it was too expensive for us though. There was a small museum in Jackson Square that had a Katrina exhibit that was very interesting. My wife found a few local music shops we checked out. Lots of tours were advertised and while we wound up not going on them I heard they were pretty fun. Getting a tour of the Garden District can be fun. Simply riding the Street Car through it is nice too. I suggest getting on at a stop further down from the ones the Tourism Center will tell you about. This was the only way we could get on the Street Car and get decent seats.

My stomach sucks so I didn't really get to eat any of the traditional foods. There were a lot of places in the Quarter that had good breakfast foods all day and I made those my diet. We pretty much stuck to Yelp for reviews of places before we ate. I suggest it. The one time we went to a lower rated place, it was very apparent (poor service, bad food, etc.). There is a pizza place up by the French Market in New Orleans that seemed to make some "New Orleans" style pizzas. The French Market is pretty cheap and gives you some stuff to do, but appeared to be pretty much what you would find at any local fair -- nothing was really "authentic" there.

Oh and while it wasn't really what you think of when going to New Orleans, we went to their Aquarium and it was within walking distance from the French Quarter. I don't remember how expensive it was, but it seemed like a decent Aquarium.

There is tons to do, and people were very nice. I was worried about crime, but I almost always felt safe. They have lots of undercover police from what I hear. They try to keep things friendly since tourism is their money. Most everyone that was local wanted to take the time to tell you about their city. Music was all over for you to listen to. The only time I felt things could potentially be weird was walking at night down some of the less populated streets (it was really no different than any other city).

/rant off

** Edit**
My wife also bought this book at our local book store and it was very useful during our trip. Buying something like this might be worth your $.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/frommers-new-orleans-2012-diana-k-schwann/1101906910