Dave & Susie's Guide to New Orleans

Preliminaries & Pre-Trip Planning

Airline Tickets
E-Tickets: if you haven't tried it, use an online ticketing agent to find cheep fares: www.travelocity.com, www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com are all fine online ticketing companies. Airlines are a secondary consideration when compared to lodging. Since New Orleans' economy is based in great part on tourism, and one national convention of 200,000 taxidermists can take up all the really good rooms, we strongly advise getting accommodations lined up first, then worry about airline tickets.

Accommodations
Two new websites that may be of help in making arrangements are these:

tripadvisor.com provides free, unbiased reviews written by real travelers for a wide range of travel options. In 2003 on our last trip we were thinking about staying at a hotel because of the room rates. Trip Advisor saved us from disaster!
http://www.1stneworleanshotels.com/ is a discounting site that might be useful in researching accomodations.
Some of our favorite hotels are listed here.

Whatever you decide, make your reservations as e-a-r-l-y as possible. lodging.com is a good place to start looking around. Also try the listing at A French Quarter Wedding. Almost any hotel you call will be a subscriber to a citywide accommodations computer service, and will be able to offer you some choices. We've stayed at the Carleton and at the Days Inn (both outside the French Quarter on Canal St.) in the past, but have come to the conclusion that we want to be in the French Quariter and close to that action.

Our two favorite French Quarter hotels are the Place D'Armes for convenience, atmosphere, and high-romance and the Hotel Monteleone for convenience, upscale accommodations. Everything outside the Quarter involves taxi-cabs or real long walks. Staying in the Quarter means you can easily "go back to the room" for a nap (or other pleasures) in the afternoon before hitting the streets in the evening.

French Quarter Hotel Reservations 1-800-523-9091 is a service that will help you find the room that fits all your needs. Or try the New Orleans Family of Fine French Quarter Hotels
These are friendly, service oriented folks who will try to book you into 1 of 3 hotels:

The Place D'Armes - 625 St. Ann Street (1-504-524-4531) - 1/2 a block off Jackson Square.
Prince Conti - 830 Conti St. (1-504-529-4172) - between Dauphine and Bourbon.
Hotel St. Marie - 827 Toulouse (1-504-561-8951)- between Dauphine & Bourbon.

If you like services that come with a big hotel, our honeymoon hotel - the Monteleone (214 Royale St. 1-504-523-3341) - is a nice choice. It is about 150 years old and can accommodate any taste from $100 doubles to $500 a night. It is right on Royal Street, which is the street to stroll and window shop for art and antiques. This is considered a "moderately priced" hotel. Last time the room was $167 a night for a king sized bed on the Royal Street Side.

If they have no rooms available, they will happily help you with arrangements at other hotels. We stayed a week ($130 double) at the Place D'Armes in 1997 and have absolutely no complaints. Our room was huge! overlooking the pool and courtyard. We were very comfortable, but the nicest thing about this hotel was the location - almost on Jackson Square and only 3 blocks from La Marquise Coffee Shop where we promise you that you have never eaten such delectable pastries. Brennan's is famous and expensive, but here you can get a chocolate croissant or a napoleon and refillable cafe au lait for under $5! and eat it in the patio while preparing for your day - it is the best breakfast in the Quarter!

Which brings us to views. Whatever your hotel choice - there may be a view to ask for. A view of the river is worth any extra cost of he room. The river at night is pretty spectacular.If you are B&B people, Bed & Breakfast Inc. Reservation Service (1-800-228-9711) will find you a room in a 19th century residence.

There is also Lodging.Com, recommended by our friend Jen, which can be enormously helpful with rooms, airline tickets, rental cars and other reservations. She likes Lodging.Com's site organization (by type of traveler) - Thanks Jen!
Finally, an all purpose "roomfinder" is TurboTrips New Orleans Hotel Index or you can call 1-800-437-7829.

Local Facts, Figures & Considerations

You might also want to check out the New Orleans Travel Guide for some local facts and figures.
Your first visit ought to be taken at a time when temperatures are cooler (October through April) and Mardi Gras isn't happening (smaller crowds, lower crime, fewer drunks, fun things aren't shut down for the party. etc.)

Take some time and plan your trip using a couple of the Web sites we've listed and a good up-to-date travel guide (i.e., Fodor's, Frommer's, or the Mobil Travelguide), and a good restaurant guide (i.e., Local food historian and critic Tom Fitzmorris is an absolute necessity). If you are an architecture fan, a museum buff, or just keen on nightlife, you can list out all the stops you want to make and note days and times of operation.
If possible, plan at least four full days for your first trip (see the 4 Day Itinerary) to get the full sense of the place.
Safety requires that you always know where you are, so you need a map of the city and the French Quarter - so get one now, before you go on your trip (call 1-800-723-5508 for a huge package of Louisiana brochures and maps).

Big Maps

Small maps

Using your hotel as your point of reference (say the Monteleone - 214 Royal St.), you know that there's a Walgreen's Drug Store at 3311 Canal St. that has an entrance on Iberville - 1 block from your hotel and 2 blocks from The Acme Oyster House (724 Iberville) which is a popular lunch place for tourists and locals. Map out all your stops in relation to your hotel, a major street or landmark.

Whatever you decide, make your reservations as e-a-r-l-y as possible.
Go to Your Ride from the Airport.
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