Another trip to The Big Easy! A fun couple of days of relaxing, eating, and taking in the sights of New Orleans. We flew in on a Wednesday afternoon and checked into the J.W. Marriott right on Canal Street across from Bourbon St.
First Stop: Beignets
As soon as we got checked in, we headed to Cafe Du Monde to get some snacks! These are the best beignets in town. There are others, you should try them too… but these are the best! They’re nice and crispy, still fluffy on the inside and the powdered sugar consistency is nice. Delicious.
New Orleans is full of good food and Nina had been dying to get some gumbo and some good ol’ southern soul food, so after beignets we did a bit of walking around and headed to The Gumbo Shop. It was highly rated on Google, looked good and we were hungry. We came in pretty early and got seated immediately. Nina thought the gumbo was so so. What was really killer was the jambalaya and the crawfish Étouffée. Absolutely delicious! And the corn was pretty tasty as well. We ended up eating at The Gumbo Shop THREE times over our three day stay in NOLA lol.
Spring time is just about perfect weather for walking around New Orleans. It was still warm and a bit humid, but a light breeze kept it cool. I don’t know what the significance of this building below is, but it was pretty and there were a bunch of people taking pictures of it so I took some too haha.
The St. Charles Trolley was our favorite. We hopped on the trolley at the first stop and rode it all the way out to the end in the Garden District. It was nice to get out of the Bourbon St. area. Didn’t smell as bad! And it was really beautiful. The trolley cost a couple bucks each for a day pass. Not bad for a tour around New Orleans.
Sazerac House
We had to hit the Sazerac House for some sips and some good ol’ bourbon history lessons. It’s fee and take less than an hour. Nice to walk around indoors and cool off and of course sip some sample drinks.
On Friday night, we made a reservation for a table at The Peacock Room for a little jazz and a couple of cocktails. It was a fun place to hang for a bit, great drinks and good music. It wasn’t as “jazz” as I had hoped though, but it was fun!
We really didn’t do too much on our trip to New Orleans. We got in some hard core relaxing, a lot of walking and of course a lot of eating and drinking. Doesn’t seem like there’s much else to do around this place besides eat and drink. And that’s ok, we travel to eat! But, we both agreed that there are other places we’d rather take food vacations than New Orleans.
New Orleans Need to Know
When to go: April or May for perfect temperatures – 70s to 80s.
Where to Stay in New Orleans: This is my 3rd trip to New Orleans and I’ve always stayed just on the edge of The French Quarter. I’ve stayed at The Rosevelt (Waldorf Astoria), and The Hyatt, and this trip we stayed at the J.W. Marriott.
How to Get Around: It’s all walkable. There isn’t much need for a car as pretty much everything here is walkable. We did ride the St. Charles Trolly car and highly recommend you do too. It was one of my favorite things in NOLA.
Top 4 Highlights:
- Food. OBVIOUSLY
- St. Charles Trolly
- Sazerac House
- Quite a few historic sites to visit
