Weekends in the French Quarter

New Orleans is a great town to visit just to see the sights. My favorite thing to do there is walk. This is the type of city where you can drop your car when you get there and not touch it again until it's time to leave.

Quick Tips:

If you're going to New Orleans when it's not too busy, (outside of Mardi Gras season) you should definitely stay in the French Quarter. We have stayed in the outskirts and it is not worth it. There are too many good places to stay that are only a block or two off of Bourbon Street to pass up. If you look you can find many hotels that are right around a night that are in the middle of everything.

Best Way To Get Around:

Once you get into town, park the car and walk. The only time you need a car is going to see things on the outskirts. Cemetery tours are supposed to be amazing, and you will need a car to get to most of them.

The Hotel Provincial was a really great place. It is truly tucked in on Rue Chartres. From the front gate it looks beautiful, but small. Once inside you realize how grand this little hotel actually is. Provincial has several small, beautiful courtyards, and two pools. The courtyards were very calming, almost like a refuse from the crazy world outside. Valet parking is an additional $15 daily. This is both reasonable and worthwhile. Several of the hotels we stayed in downtown did not have their own parking facility. At night the front gates are locked and guarded, so the hotel is very safe. The rooms were relatively small, but very clean and wonderfully decorated. The staff at the hotel was great. A wonderful touch is that they provide you with a daily newspaper.

The best part was the location, which places you two blocks from Jackson Square and three blocks off of Bourbon Street. You can get to anywhere in the French Quarter by walking in 10 minutes.

With only 14 rooms, staying at the Cornstalk is like staying in someone's home. You enter the building and walk down a long hallway to register at the small check-in desk at the end. The charge for a night's stay was remarkably cheap at only $75. This hotel was a great little place to stay for the weekend. Definitely different from what you're used to. The wrought iron cornstalk fence out front is what gives the place its name and makes it so famous. The fence alone is over 130 years old. Behind the fence is a beautiful little courtyard that is nice to sit in and relax. Royal Street is my favorite in New Orleans. It is in a quiet, secluded section of the Quarter, but being only a block off of Bourbon, it is still very close to everything. Because of the historic value of the hotel, it is frequented by the city horsedrawn carriage tours.

We stayed in the first room inside the front door and you could hear horse footsteps all night long. Instead of being annoying this was actually rather peaceful. It gives the feeling of stepping back in time. Rooms farther inside the house are available that would probably remove you from the noise outside. The rooms were small, but comfortable. The bathrooms were the same, but it was very clean. You can also arrange to have them bring you breakfast in bed and they will take your tray away when you're finished.

There is no parking close by. What we did to handle this is drop all of ur belongings outside and parked for the weekend down at the Riverfront. We had no problems, and the price for parking was comparable to the valet services of the other hotels in the area. In this city there really is no need for a car unless you're going out to explore.

The Hotel Villa Convento didn't look like much at first glance. It is situated slightly out of the way on the southeastern corner of the busy part of the French Quarter. It is still very much within walking distance of everything. The building is the original House of the Rising Sun Bordello, so there is a lot of history involved. The whole facility is situated around a central patio/courtyard. Breakfast is served daily in this area.

Even once you're inside the courtyard area, the place doesn't look like much, but once we were inside our room we were pleasantly surprised. All of the rooms open up onto the patio area with inside balconies above. The rooms were well sized with large clean bathrooms. There was a nice little sitting area in the room as well. There are 25 rooms in all.

This hotel, like many others in the city, has limited on-site parking for $6 a night. We were not lucky enough to get into the lot for the night, but it was no big deal to park down on the Riverfront, and not much more expensive. Once you get rid of the car you can get anywhere on foot unless you want to leave town. This place is definitely not ordinary and is worth staying at just to experience.

The Hyatt is a lot like most other. It is a huge building that is very extravagant and beautiful. Our stay there was very pleasant. The rooms were sizable and very clean.

The Superdome is very close and there are two restaurants inside. The location puts you within walking distance of the French Quarter. We took a cab out, but ended up walking back to the hotel at night. The route back is sort of deserted, because you're close to the business section, but seemed relatively safe.

The night's stay was excellent and the hotel would be great for a business traveller, but I wouldn't recommend it if you really want to experience New Orleans. There are too many interesting small hotels in the Quarter that are less expensive.

A small cafe-style restaurant about a block off of Jackson Square. We had great crawdads several times here while we were in town. We had different experiences with the other food. We had the Po-Boys a couple of times. For some reason, once the sandwiches weren't so good. It may have been a fluke thing. They had many different kinds of good drinks. The atmosphere was always very pleasant and open feeling. The waiters and waitresses were all very friendly to us on all occasions. Overall, it was a nice spot to sit and watch the people of New Orleans pass by. Definitely worth the try for some good classic regional food.

The whole dining experience was wonderful. In a town full of food, this restaurant definitely stands out. The wait was rather lengthy, but it was well worth it. Conveniently, there are several pubs in the immediate area where you can go to wait until they are ready to seat you in Mr. B's. Run by the famous Brennan Family, the restaurant is quite a mixture of food styles. It is advertised as "Creole Cuisine", but is so much more. The atmosphere was very lively and fun. When we were there a live pianist was on the premises. Jazz tunes filled the air and mixed with the wonderul aromas of fine cuisine.

Crescent City is the only brewhouse in the French Quarter. It is situated on Decatur St. looking out over the river. We had a wonderful dining experience here. We ate out on the balcony hanging over the street, only two blocks from Jackson Square. The warm sounds of a local jazz band downstairs helps saturate the night air that is so specific to New Orleans.

The menu offers more than the traditional New Orleans cuisine. It is an eclectic mix of several flavors and styles of cooking. Their beer selection was suberb and the waiter offered suggestions regarding that went well with our meals.

The building itself offers a rich historic past, as it is one of the buildings in New Orleans' original city plan. The new design blends modern style well with remnants of historic New Orleans culture. We even decided to stay for dessert and I had some of the best tiramisu that I've ever eaten. It was as big as the plate! I would recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting New Orleans.

Howl at the Moon was a pretty nice little bar. Earlier in the evening, there was plenty of seating at both the bar and tables. Happy hour is from opening until 8pm. During happy hour, drinks are two-for-one. The performers were dueling pianists and were pretty entertaining. I think this may be a chain, but it was fun nonetheless. Later at night, the place was packed. Anywhere you go downtown after midnight is going to be like that though. I'd recommend stopping in just to see the performers!