New Orleans: The Good, The Bad, and the Amazing

I loved New Orleans. NOLA is a city that is typically pretty high on travel lists and I had the pleasure of visiting with my boyfriend, my best friend, and her boyfriend. We went down from a Thursday morning to a Monday afternoon. If you are looking for an idea of how long you should spend in New Orleans it varies on the type of trip you have, but we found 5 days to be great for sightseeing, enjoying events, and experiencing the nightlife. Here are some of the things we learned about the big easy; the good, the bad, and the amazing.

THE GOOD

It lives up to the hype

When you are planning a vacation you can get so excited and build up an idea of a trip in your head to the point that it cannot possibly match your expectations. With all that we had heard from friends who had previously visited, we were extremely eager to experience it ourselves.

NOLA did not disappoint. The atmosphere at night was just as electric as we had pictured. The food was just as delicious we had hoped. The overall feeling of the city was what you hear about constantly. Everyone was extremely friendly and relaxed. Although, it should be noted that their version of relaxed is different than an LA version of relaxed, which can typically drive a city girl insane.

This is not one of those situations where the anticipation is better than the real thing. The real thing is incredible. I can’t wait to go back!

THERE IS PLENTY TO DO

As long as your goal isn’t to simply drink on Bourbon Street 24/7, there are plenty out activities to entertain yourself with. New Orleans itself is a large city. So if you are okay adventuring from the French Quarter you will find a lot of interesting things. Even if you don’t want to leave the French Quarter, there is still plenty to occupy your time with.

Much like when we visited Chicago, we realized that NOLA had too many sites we wanted to visit on one trip, so we stuck to the ones that we truly didn’t want to pass up. If you are only there for a few days and don’t want to adventure too far from your hotel, you can easily find something to see.

THERE IS (MOSTLY) NO COVER CHARGE

This is a common occurrence for most Northeastern cities like Philly or New York and is practically a given for any place in Las Vegas. However, New Orleans doesn’t charge anything to get in the doors. MOSTLY. There are a few places you will find that charge, but most of those are strip clubs (seriously).

On our first day there we were at Razzoo and talking with the bartender. We asked her the two biggest questions we needed to know for later; when do the bars close and when does cover charge start. Her immediate reaction was “you must be from the north.” Apparently, they do not do that most other places, so we were extremely excited to find out we didn’t have to shell out extra cash.

Side note, she also said the bars don’t ever truly close. A lot of them are open 24 hours and you can by alcohol at any time of the night in a grocery store too. This is one of the things that leads me to the bad parts of a NOLA trip.

THE BAD

IT IS EXTREMELY EASY TO GO OVERBOARD

The atmosphere of Bourbon Street at night, the happy hour specials, and the open container law (spoiler these are why NOLA is amazing), are also the reasons it is extremely easy to forget your limit. Happy hours start as early as noon for some bars! One of the other reasons it is extremely easy to overdo it is my next “bad” part of New Orleans.

(MOST) BARS DON’T SERVE FOOD

I am from Philadelphia. The bars close at 2am, but a lot of the kitchens close somewhere between 10pm and midnight for most bars. NOLA doesn’t have a kitchen closing time because most bars do not serve food.

The first bar we went to we took advantage of the 3-for-1 drink special and quickly realized we needed to soak up the alcohol with some food. We grabbed a waitress and asked to see a menu and was quickly informed they just sell drinks. In fact, a lot of the bars on Bourbon Street were simply drinking bars and you had to venture elsewhere to get something to eat.

This is not to say that every bar fell into this category, but if you are looking to grab food with your drinks be sure to ask for a menu. This avoids any surprises later.

THEFT IS REAL

Alright clearly anytime you are on vacation you should still be aware of your surroundings. I live in a big city and interact with homeless people pretty regularly. It isn’t uncommon for them to ask for money or food. The biggest difference is the homeless people we encountered in New Orleans were more social, for lack of a better word.

They would come up to you and ask directly. One tried to take my pizza from my hands. My friend at Mardi Gras got his entire wallet stolen from his pocket (a wallet that held his cell phone as well).

Before we left, I got my boyfriend a special wallet that clipped his money instead so it would be harder to pickpocket.

The amount that you are drinking combined with the fact that you are on vacation makes a lot of tourists easy marks. Just remember to keep both eyes open when you are out at night and don’t go anyone by yourself.

THE AMAZING

IT IS PERFECT FOR PEOPLE ON A LOW BUDGET

New Orleans is a destination city. This doesn’t mean it has to break the bank when you get there though. When we visited our entire group was definitely on a travel budget so everything from our hotel, flights, and activities had to be on the lower end of cost.

Before we went I researched the best places to get a drink in NOLA and started realizing there were a lot of places that had incredible happy hour specials. I decided to put together a complete list with not just the bars, but what the specials are and when they honor happy hour. Some bar specials started at noon and ran until 8pm. The popular special is 3-for-1 drinks. If you order one beer you are handed 3. If you order one mixed drink they add three shots into it. It doesn’t take a genius to realize this can save you money.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE (EVEN THOSE WHO DON’T DRINK)

There are some cities you visit with a group of people, only to find out that the big attractions are only appealing to parts of your party. The worry for New Orleans a lot of times is that all there is to do is drink on Bourbon Street. You can do so much outside of Bourbon Street or even outside French Quarter!

As far as extra activities, that is going to have to be an entirely different post, but I’ll let you know a few things we did do. You can head to Algier’s Point. Learn more about the floats in the parades at Mardi Gras World. Head over to Frenchmen’s Street for a more relaxed environment with incredible music. Visit Lafayette Cemetery and learn why people actually visit a cemetery in the first place. The list is truly extensive, but you won’t run out of options!

THE FOOD

I touched on this a little before about how the food lives up to the hype, but I need to talk more about it. When you think of New Orleans inevitable you will think of ones of their traditional dishes. Jambalaya, beignets, po’boys, you name it! My friend and I made it our goal to try all of the classic NOLA dishes. While there are places like Cafe Du Monde that are known for having the best beignets, there are plenty of places throughout the city that boast delicious offerings. You don’t have to go to one particular place to have gumbo. Even in June, it was amazing.

Sometimes on vacations, you can get bored of eating out so frequently, but that will never be the case in New Orleans. You can find something around every corner and you won’t be disappointed!

If you are ready to head to New Orleans or just are daydreaming about it, I highly suggest heading to Skyscanner and looking up the cheapest flights from your city. You might be surprised at how low they can go! Or, if you aren’t quite ready, go to airfarewatchdog and set an alert for when prices drop down!

Already going to NOLA and don’t know what to check out? Visit Travelzoo to learn about activities and on sale offerings, the city has going on. You might even find a travel deal for your trip too!