New Orleans-Gene E

August 8 – August 11, 2008. New Orleans Department of Tourism FAM:
This was my first trip to the New Orleans area. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and I really enjoyed the destination. I found the people to be very friendly and they were obviously VERY happy we were there. I was very amazed at how busy it was for mid August. It turns out there was a Shaklee convention there during that time.

All of the hotels in the French Quarter were sold out so we stayed in the Garden District. I think it turned out to be a good thing. I’m not sure we would have seen that part of town had we not stayed there. We stayed at the Maison St. Charles on St. Charles which was a quaint, Quality Suites property. The staff was awesome and although they were in the middle of renovations, our stay was mostly enjoyable. It had a real homey feel, was clean and neat and had everything you need. A new lobby is being built and I could see how lovely it will be when finished. Our rooms were nice although the furnishing were a bit dark. They had a poster in the lobby of what the rooms will look like after renovated and they will be much nicer. The hotel had a nice breakfast room and served an adequate continental breakfast. There is a small but nice pool area and a beautiful courtyard area. The rating showed this property as a four star however, I would say at this point it is more like three star. The St. Charles Line streetcar was directly across the street from the hotel so that was very convenient.

I found Canal Street to be very nice with its upscale shops. Bourbon Street was very seedy but interesting.

Of course, the food was fabulous. We went to Café Du Monde twice for Beniets and loved it. We had lunch one day at The French Market Restaurant which was Creole/Italian and was pretty good. The next day we had lunch at a small Italian restaurant, Carmelo’s, which was on Decauter Street. The food was fabulous and the prices excellent. I would very much recommend this restaurant. One of our tour guides recommended Adolpho’s Creole Italian Restaurant which is off the main drag on Frenchman’s Street. It was excellent with fabulous prices and wonderful food. It’s where all of the locals go to eat. The area also offers great jazz and blues music in local venues.

We took the French Quarter Walking Tour which was awesome. Our guide was a retired history Teacher and did an outstanding job. We also took the Natchez Steamboat River Cruise which was nice. It was a great way to spend two hours on a warm afternoon. We chose not to do any tours that included the Katrina fiasco as I personally have seen all I care to on the news and am sick of hearing of it.

We wanted to do one of the plantation tours which I’m told are fabulous but we ran out of time. I would recommend a minimum of 4 nights to do justice to New Orleans.