New Orleans?

[NotUrsula]

A question about the steetcar - one end is the zoo/park and the other end is what? Are there any stops in between that we should avoid, and on the other hand, are there any stops that we should defintely make sure to get off and explore?

Thanks!

Presuming that you mean the St. Charles Line, the zoo/park is not actually the end of the line; the end of that line is actually at the intersection of Carrollton and Claiborne Avenues. Audubon Park is about 2/3 of way along the line, if you are counting from Canal St. @ Carondelet (which is the Eastern terminus of the line.)

Actually, I would not advise taking the St. Charles Streetcar TO the zoo; take the #11 Magazine St. bus instead, because that takes you directly to the zoo. If you take the streetcar you will have to walk all the way across the park to reach the zoo, and that is a distance equal to 11 city blocks. If you don't want to walk back to St. Charles to catch the streetcar after visiting the zoo, you can catch the #32 Leonidas bus at the zoo entrance; it will take you up Broadway to St. Charles. (BTW, the Audubon Zoo has one VERY unique feature that you won't find at other zoos: recipes. Some of their exhibits feature posted recipes for cooking the animal that is on display. ) A large part of St. Charles is residential further out, and closer in is simply commercial; Magazine is a better street for browsing interesting shops and galleries, and for restaurants.

Tulane's campus is directly across from Audubon Park on St. Charles, they have some neat stuff to see, including the Newcomb Galleries at the Woldenberg Art Center, which has some beautiful Tiffany windows.

 

[Swan4Me]

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Luckily, the day before, we are coming down from Baton Rogue, So, we will have time to see the plantations. Also, if needed, we can use the next morning for something, as our next driving destination is only about 4 hours away.

About halfway from BR to NO are several gorgeous Plantations

San Francisco is my fave because of the hand painted walls in some rooms

Oak alley, tho , is the quintessential one you can not miss to tour-and taking any picture along that double row of old oaks is magnificent


NotUrsula-re: Zoo-i completely forgot that about the location of the Zoo to st Charles!!

 

[ocalla]

Didn't get to read the entire thread, but one of our favorite places to shop around is Magazine Street. It is VERY LONG though, so if you are without a car it might be tough to enjoy it.

 

[sam_gordon]

Here I am! I just took a step back with the debating going on because it seems to take on a life of its own.

We'll be there March 10-16.

If you (or family members) enjoy basketball, you might be able to get tickets to the SEC championship game on the 11th. Fans of teams who lose on Saturday may be willing to part with their tickets cheap.

 

[North of Mouse]

Great thread, as we will be stopping by New Orleans on our way to the Fort in July.

Couple of questions:
Where can we take our son (11 yrs old) to dinner or lunch and watch sax players? My son is really into music and is learning the sax, clarinet, trombone and violin. I would love for him to see some really cool, live music in New Orleans.

Are the ghost tours scary for 9 year olds?

Could we do a swamp tour, ghost tour and dinner/lunch and hang out all in one day? I have no idea how to allocate our 1 full day there.

Luckily, the day before, we are coming down from Baton Rogue, So, we will have time to see the plantations. Also, if needed, we can use the next morning for something, as our next driving destination is only about 4 hours away.

Don't miss the beignets at Cafe du Monde at the FQ on the MS River, also the River Walk on the river is so interesting. There are usually jazz players at a restaurant right near the open air French Market that are interesting. We have done the swamp tour, but it's been several years ago, but we loved it. There is so much more, but if you only have one day no use telling you more of the wonderful places that you can't possibly make Have lots of fun - if you are that limited in time, it will definitely lure you back

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Count me in as a future visitor....going April 15th for 3 nights for my DH's 40th.

We are staying at the Roosevelt and I am getting super excited. However, since I have never been, I have zero sense of direction...meaning, basically, what is where. LOL

I know we want to enjoy good food (and drink ), stroll streets and shops, and hit the WWII museum. I would also like to do a cemetery tour.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[a1tinkfans]

My ds was just accepted at Tulane...............and this thread really has me thinking........................

 

[NotUrsula]

About halfway from BR to NO are several gorgeous Plantations

San Francisco is my fave because of the hand painted walls in some rooms

Oak alley, tho , is the quintessential one you can not miss to tour-and taking any picture along that double row of old oaks is magnificent

I recently encountered an online news story about wedding trends, and it described one wedding as being held at "Oak Alley in New Orleans" -- WTH? Oak Alley is in Vacherie, a full 40 miles WNW of the New Orleans airport, AND on the other side of the river. Anyone who expects to find it in New Orleans is going to be rather disappointed. (FWIW, the only house of that type that is in greater New Orleans is Beauregard, which is now the Visitors Center for the Chalmette Battlefield Nat'l Park.)

The plantations are not all close together, so you really kind of need to decide in advance which ones you want to see and plan your route accordingly. The two largest houses that are most often seen in photographs and films are Nottaway (in White Castle, obviously enough), and Oak Alley, which is in Vacherie. San Francisco is in Reserve, on the opposite side of the river from Oak Alley and a bit closer to New Orleans. (All 3 of those are between BTR and NOLA.) The Myrtles, which is famous for supposedly being very haunted, is in St. Francisville, north of Baton Rouge, as are Greenwood, Catalpa and the Cottage. For fans of Gone With the Wind, one of the must-sees tends to be Chretien Point in Sunset, near I-10 north of Lafayette (the back staircase where Scarlett shoots the Yankee soldier was a copy of the one in this house.) One of the nicer ones that a lot of folks don't visit is Houmas House, which is in Burnside. One of the very oldest plantation homes is in Baton Rouge proper: Magnolia Mound on Nicholson Road near LSU, which now belongs to the city of Baton Rouge.

 

[MrsPete]

Nola lovers, eat, sleep and breathe the city , it is our passion , our home, and our way of life. We know what it is to love this great city and we are sad when others fail to see her .

Of course I understand people feeling differently.
Where I take offense is people telling me I didn't see the things that I know I saw! Aside from getting a street name wrong, I do know what I saw and did in New Orleans.

I'm glad y'all love it, but I'm also glad that my husband and I are in agreement that it's not for us.

 

[Planogirl]

About halfway from BR to NO are several gorgeous Plantations

San Francisco is my fave because of the hand painted walls in some rooms

Oak alley, tho , is the quintessential one you can not miss to tour-and taking any picture along that double row of old oaks is magnificent


NotUrsula-re: Zoo-i completely forgot that about the location of the Zoo to st Charles!!

San Francisco is one of the few that I haven't toured. My personal favorite is Destrehan because I love the style and ghost stories. Nottoway is also lovely but a bit far.

 

[Planogirl]

I recently encountered an online news story about wedding trends, and it described one wedding as being held at "Oak Alley in New Orleans" -- WTH? Oak Alley is in Vacherie, a full 40 miles WNW of the New Orleans airport, AND on the other side of the river. Anyone who expects to find it in New Orleans is going to be rather disappointed. (FWIW, the only house of that type that is in greater New Orleans is Beauregard, which is now the Visitors Center for the Chalmette Battlefield Nat'l Park.)

The plantations are not all close together, so you really kind of need to decide in advance which ones you want to see and plan your route accordingly. The two largest houses that are most often seen in photographs and films are Nottaway (in White Castle, obviously enough), and Oak Alley, which is in Vacherie. San Francisco is in Reserve, on the opposite side of the river from Oak Alley and a bit closer to New Orleans. (All 3 of those are between BTR and NOLA.) The Myrtles, which is famous for supposedly being very haunted, is in St. Francisville, north of Baton Rouge, as are Greenwood, Catalpa and the Cottage. For fans of Gone With the Wind, one of the must-sees tends to be Chretien Point in Sunset, near I-10 north of Lafayette (the back staircase where Scarlett shoots the Yankee soldier was a copy of the one in this house.) One of the nicer ones that a lot of folks don't visit is Houmas House, which is in Burnside. One of the very oldest plantation homes is in Baton Rouge proper: Magnolia Mound on Nicholson Road near LSU, which now belongs to the city of Baton Rouge.

The Cottage gets confusing. There are also the plantation ruins near Baton Rouge that came from a house called The Cottage. I wrote a travel writer once because he had included The Cottage in his sights to see in St Francisville and mentioned that it had burned down. Ummm, no.
http://www.prairieghosts.com/cottplan.html

Another great plantation house is Laura. It also burned a few years ago but luckily was rebuilt.
http://www.lauraplantation.com/

I love the River Road! I might just talk and talk about it (and it looks like I already did. )

 

[Swan4Me]

Laura was owned by a free black woman, which makes it unique and is very close to Oak Alley

Oak Alley also has a great craft fair one weekend each spring - its March 24 this year

 

[North of Mouse]

San Francisco is one of the few that I haven't toured. My personal favorite is Destrehan because I love the style and ghost stories. Nottoway is also lovely but a bit far.

Most of the plantations to tour seem to be more toward St. Francisville. We always enjoyed Rosedown, Nottoway was the one that was not finished for so long, also like Stanton Hall, but that's in Natchez. There's so many beautiful preserved plantations down there to see and I miss just being able to take day trips

 

[Swan4Me]

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4...4CA&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CDgQtgM

These are the ones that are 30-45 minutes from new Orleans

Agreed St Francisville LA and Natchez MS are also wonderful places to tour plantations

OP- wanted to add the buildings on either side of St Louis catherdral ( be sure to walk inside this-its gorgeous-and on a Saturday we have seen weddings either arriving or leaving in the afternoon!) there are 2 museums that have great exhibits-one is all about mardi gras!

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

I'm baaaaaaack . . . with more questions!

We are still undecided about how we're getting to NOLA.

Option a) We are waiting on our tax refund, so as a result I have not purchased airfare. Right now tickets from Atlanta are $90 each way, and we will be a party of 3. A little much for me. And then I guess cab fare from the airport?

Option b) Riding the train from Atlanta, just regular coach, is $350 total round trip. Pretty good price but then you have to factor in the time it takes - about 12 hours from Atlanta. I know someone said the train station is in a bad area of NO, but how much risk would we be taking by getting off a train and getting into a cab? I assume cabs are generally hanging around the train station, but maybe I'm naive.

Option c) Driving. From our house Mapquest says its ~9 hours, but that's assuming no stopping and no traffic holdups. We would probably take my Nissan Versa, which is great on gas, but what if gas really is $4 by then? Then there's the problem of parking - from looking at the address on Mapquest, it shows cars parked in the street, but I'm not sure that's a given or safe. My nephew said parking is a problem, but I'm not sure if he meant at the condo or in the FQ - are there parking garages? Is it expensive? We don't plan on using the car once we're there.

We also considered driving over to Birmingham and getting a flight, but airfare is no cheaper. We also are considering, if we drive, renting a car.

Any advice you can share would be great!

 

[Swan4Me]

I actually passed on a night away at the Hilton Riverwalk because the parking is like $35 a day at their garage!

You would probably park in the street for that place, and honestly i would not do it

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

I actually passed on a night away at the Hilton Riverwalk because the parking is like $35 a day at their garage!

You would probably park in the street for that place, and honestly i would not do it

OH MY! Well that is definitely something to weigh heavily, then. Off to do more research . . .

Thanks!

 

[NotUrsula]

Street parking is a problem in the Quarter at all times; there isn't much of it, and there are a lot of folks who want it. Folks who live there can buy resident stickers for street parking, in those zones anyone without a sticker will be towed.

The average cost of overnight parking in a garage in the Quarter is about $30-40. Most of the larger hotels have garages available, and will allow cash payment for non-guests (they charge more for non-guests, obviously, sometimes a lot more.)

Another option is to drop off your party at the condo and cross over Canal into the CBD to park in one of the public garages over there. They tend to be a bit less expensive, but also a bit less secure at night because they mostly service office workers. Premium Parking operates several of the commercial garages in the CBD and has a page outlining the overnight parking options that they offer: http://www.premiumparking.com/overnight-hotel-parking/

One garage that I've used many times that is fairly close to where you will be staying is the former DH Holmes Dept. Store garage, it is on Iberville between Dauphine and Bourbon (the price has been known to increase for special events) http://neworleans.centralparking.com/New-Orleans-817-Iberville-Street-Parking.html It's a bit tatty, but fairly secure, though as always, never leave anything remotely valuable in a place where it is visible through the car windows.

As to the Amtrak station, no, it isn't really in a bad neighborhood, but you might say that it is in no neighborhood at all. It is set up with a huge entrance circle, and is right in the middle of a a highway intersection and large cluster of office buildings, many of them owned by the Federal Government. The Superdome is right behind it. You don't want to try to leave it on foot because the traffic near it is insane, but requesting a cab there should not be difficult.

 

[KGNOLA]

Hi! I live in New Orleans and hope that you and your family have a lovely visit! Parking is very expensive and inconvenient, IMHO, so I would suggest flying or taking the train. The cab fare from the airport is $14 per person when you have 3 or more people. Check out United Cabs as they are the most reliable. The cab fare from the train station will be much cheaper (not exactly sure but probably 10 or less). The station isn't in too bad a part of town, but if it were me I would want to arrive in the daylight.

My top three fun things to do on a budget in the FQ are:
1 The free tours offered by Jean Lafitte National Park Office, 419 Decatur Street. They also have free clean public restrooms and a great museum. They offer the tours everyday and they are really informative and a great way to get to know the area.

2 Stop by Southern Candymakers (2 locations on Decatur) for a free praline sample and watch them make the candy right in front of you!

3 The Algiers Ferry. A family favorite! It is free and Algiers Point is a pleasant area to walk around and grab a cheap bite to eat. More info can be found at algierspoint.org.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore questions

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

Street parking is a problem in the Quarter at all times; there isn't much of it, and there are a lot of folks who want it. Folks who live there can buy resident stickers for street parking, in those zones anyone without a sticker will be towed.

The average cost of overnight parking in a garage in the Quarter is about $30-40. Most of the larger hotels have garages available, and will allow cash payment for non-guests (they charge more for non-guests, obviously, sometimes a lot more.)

Another option is to drop off your party at the condo and cross over Canal into the CBD to park in one of the public garages over there. They tend to be a bit less expensive, but also a bit less secure at night because they mostly service office workers. Premium Parking operates several of the commercial garages in the CBD and has a page outlining the overnight parking options that they offer: http://www.premiumparking.com/overnight-hotel-parking/

One garage that I've used many times that is fairly close to where you will be staying is the former DH Holmes Dept. Store garage, it is on Iberville between Dauphine and Bourbon (the price has been known to increase for special events) http://neworleans.centralparking.com/New-Orleans-817-Iberville-Street-Parking.html It's a bit tatty, but fairly secure, though as always, never leave anything remotely valuable in a place where it is visible through the car windows.

As to the Amtrak station, no, it isn't really in a bad neighborhood, but you might say that it is in no neighborhood at all. It is set up with a huge entrance circle, and is right in the middle of a a highway intersection and large cluster of office buildings, many of them owned by the Federal Government. The Superdome is right behind it. You don't want to try to leave it on foot because the traffic near it is insane, but requesting a cab there should not be difficult.

Hi! I live in New Orleans and hope that you and your family have a lovely visit! Parking is very expensive and inconvenient, IMHO, so I would suggest flying or taking the train. The cab fare from the airport is $14 per person when you have 3 or more people. Check out United Cabs as they are the most reliable. The cab fare from the train station will be much cheaper (not exactly sure but probably 10 or less). The station isn't in too bad a part of town, but if it were me I would want to arrive in the daylight.

My top three fun things to do on a budget in the FQ are:
1 The free tours offered by Jean Lafitte National Park Office, 419 Decatur Street. They also have free clean public restrooms and a great museum. They offer the tours everyday and they are really informative and a great way to get to know the area.

2 Stop by Southern Candymakers (2 locations on Decatur) for a free praline sample and watch them make the candy right in front of you!

3 The Algiers Ferry. A family favorite! It is free and Algiers Point is a pleasant area to walk around and grab a cheap bite to eat. More info can be found at algierspoint.org.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore questions

Well with airfare climbing, our tax refund showed up in my account today so I bought Amtrak. I got a bedroom for really cheap so that 3 meals per day are included for all 3 of us. Total was ~$550 roundtrip. I'm happy with our choice!

Thanks so much for the advice; now that transportation is done, I'm on to planning our activities. More questions to follow, I'm sure!