We began looking for a place to stay shortly after we got engaged, however March is apparently a peak travel time for the city, and there was a convention going on there the weekend we were traveling also. So by mid-February, all of the places that we were interested in staying were already booked. Location was very important, and we initially wanted a bed-and-breakfast inside the French Quarter; however none were available.
We ended up selecting Royal St. Charles Hotel, which I knew when I booked wasn't exactly what we wanted, but we were out of options. It actually turned out to be worse than I could have imagined, but more on that later.
We had planned on taking the Amtrak train there, but waited around on booking, and by Tuesday night before we were supposed to leave on Thursday, as we're sitting at my parent's kitchen table, borrowing their wifi, we realized we couldn't get seats on the train. We decided then to just drive-a very easy 6 hr drive and an hour and half shorter than the train ride-and that we would go ahead and leave Wednesday afternoon., giving us another full day in New Orleans. I'm actually very glad things worked out this way for us; because it ended up being a really good thing.
We found a hotel about 40 minutes outside of the city Wednesday night, since ours wasn't available until Thursday afternoon, and honestly, the hotel was terrifying. The location and price were exactly what we were looking for, but it was filthy and we both slept in our clothes on top of the covers. I suppose that's just what you get for $52 a night. I couldn't wait to get out of there Thursday morning.
We got into New Orleans on Thursday, and got checked into our hotel. I will give it this, it was a clean hotel-wonderful in comparison to the super sketchy place we stayed the night before. And the location was perfect-just one block off Canal Street and from the French Quarter, and on the corner of a St. Charles Avenue streetcar stop. But, our room was tiny, with an even tinier bathroom, and it had no window, microwave, or mini-fridge. We requested a mini-fridge, but after much run-around, were told on the 2nd day that it would come with a $25 charge-um, no thanks. The staff, with the exception of one or two nice employees, were mostly very, very rude. The hotel charged a mandatory $10 per night fee, on top of the crazy high price we were already paying, for use of the fitness center, wifi, and long distance calling-none of which we used at all during our entire stay. Needless to stay, if we could have found any other options, we would not have stayed there, and never will again.
But, our trip....
*Please excuse the poor quality of any photos as all were taken with my over 2 year-old iPhone 4s.
Our first night there, we had drinks at The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone.
We walked around Jackson Square and went down to see the Mississippi River.
For supper, we ate shrimp po-boys at NOLA's Po-boys on a tiny balcony overlooking Bourbon Street, and it was a wonderful dinner.
The following day, we took the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District. We toured Lafayette Cemetery #1, and it was so eerily beautiful and at times wonderfully creepy. It was overcast and drizzling and there weren't very many other people there that day. We loved it!
After that, we did a self-guided tour of the gorgeous homes in the Garden District in the rain. It was nice at first, but the rain come down harder, we got wetter, and then we decided to forgo the rest of our tour for a roof over our heads and some amazing gumbo at a little table outside a little local owned shop on Magazine Street.
Friday night, we got dressed up and listened to some great music on Frenchman Street and shopped at a local street arts and crafts fair, and bought a really cool print for our home.
Stay tuned for scenes from the next two days we spent in the Big Easy....
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