Vanessa Visits

New Orleans had been on my travel bucket list for years. Between the food, the history, the music, and the unique culture, it neared the top of my list of US cities to visit. I knew I wanted to experience it at least once. Earlier this year, my husband and I finally made the trip. After four days of eating our way through the city, staying at a French Quarter hotel, visiting museums, and even taking a swamp tour on an air boat, I can confidently say that NOLA lived up to the hype!

Day One: French Quarter, Jackson Square, and the Garden District

We arrived the evening before our true “Day One”, and headed straight to our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western French Quarter on North Rampart, just a short couple minutes on foot away from the famous Bourbon Street. We checked in, set down our bags, got dinner at Mambo’s on Bourbon, and came back to our room to crash for the night.

Our dinner at Mambo’s shortly after landing in Nola. We had a crab cake appetizer, Tim had a “taste of New Orleans” trio, and I had redfish with corn grits and collared greens. A great dinner at this very busy and bustling restaurant!

The next day, we slept in a little bit and headed straight to the French Market around lunch time. Our first stop at the market was Loretta’s Famous Pralines for some authentic New Orleans beignets. We had heard that his place was beloved by locals, and we were hoping the line would be shorter than the famous and always busy Cafe du Monde. We should have gone in the morning instead of sleeping in, as we did still have to wait a fair bit! Our beignets were delicious, though, and I think the wait was worth it. We had praline beignets and crab beignets.

Loretta’s was clearly a local favorite as well as a tourist hot spot

One of our crab meat beignets

After enjoying our beignets and wandering around to take in the sights of the many vendors, food stalls, souvenirs, trinkets, and live music, we got a muffuletta to share. A muffuletta is yet another staple of New Orleans cuisine. They are round Italian sandwiches with salami, ham, provolone, and olive salad. Tim really enjoyed it. And although I’m generally not a fan of olives, I also found it to be quite good!

The muffuletta we shared at the French Market

After our afternoon at the French Market, we headed to Jackson Square, which is home to St. Louis Cathedral. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in the US in continuous use. It was beautiful and a very cool historic landmark to check out. While you’re there, make sure to get some photos in front of the cathedral and the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson.

Don’t mind the Crocs- I had a broken toe and needed loose shoes to walk around in!

After some souvenir shopping and a little more sight seeing, we took a ferry across the Mississippi River and back before taking a bus over to the Garden District of New Orleans. The Garden District is beautiful, with impressive architecture and very old oak trees with branches that arch over the streets. There are historic mansions to admire as well. The energy here is completely different from the French Quarter, and offers a different side of New Orleans. I strongly recommend taking a stroll through the Garden District on your trip. Getting to see those oak trees was easily a highlight for both me and my husband.

My pictures don’t do it justice!

For dinner, we tried a Haitian restaurant near our hotel called Fritai. I ordered crab mac and cheese with Creole hot wings, and Tim had a plantain sandwich. We shared some vegetable fritters with a spicy house-made sauce called pikliz. This was a delicious meal and I highly recommend eating at Fritai. It was also a great reminder that New Orleans is influenced by many different cultures beyond the well known Cajun dishes!

Finally, we went back to our hotel room for the night. There, we were greeted by Gary the hotel cat, who turned out to be an unexpected highlight of our trip! We met her when we heard her meowing outside of our room, and then she proceeded to barge in and make herself at home! And yes, despite her name, Gary is a girl.

Day two: museums, Mardi Gras, and Bourbon Street

On day two, the first stop on our agenda was the National World War 2 Museum. Even if you’re not a huge history buff, I’d still recommend visiting if you enjoy museums. This one is huge and quite impressive, with different themed areas that were clearly designed to be part of an immersive experience. There were several interactive exhibits as well. The museum does a great job of bringing history to life. We left after a couple of hours but there was still more to do and look at if we had stayed.

After that, it was time for lunch. We went to a restaurant called Cochon. Tim got brisket with deviled egg potato salad, and I got fried alligator tossed in chili garlic mayo and macaroni and cheese casserole. Both of our meals were delicious and distinctly Louisiana! If you haven’t had alligator before and are nervous to try it, I would say to give it a shot. If I had to compare it to another meat, I would say it’s most similar to chicken. It’s not a perfect comparison, but trust me that alligator tastes very inoffensive.

After lunch, we took an Uber to our next top: Mardi Gras World. This ended up being one of my favorite attractions of our trip, and it was easily the highlight of our second day in NOLA. It’s a huge warehouse where Mardi Gras floats are made, and they offer tours every half hour. We took one, and it was so much fun! Everyone in our group got to have a piece of King Cake too, which was a fun touch for the experience. King Cake is a long held New Orleans tradition.

During our tour, we learned we learned about the history and traditions of Mardi Gras. Many of the city’s famous parade floats are made and stored here, and we got to see those too. It was so cool to see a little bit of the process and the craftsmanship behind making the iconic Mardi Gras floats and props. I personally had a more enjoyable time here than at the WWII museum. And it felt more distinctly New Orleans, too.

After killing some time and taking a quick nap in our hotel room, we went to Bourbon Street for dinner at a restaurant called Rex House. I had Cajun stuffed fish with crawfish cream sauce with a side of jambalaya, and Tim had the jambalaya entree with blackened chicken and smoked sausage. We also got bread pudding to go, which we enjoyed later that night at the hotel. Bread pudding is a dessert frequently enjoyed in NOLA, and it’s easy to see why. Make sure to get some at least once on your upcoming trip.

Tim’s jambalaya from Rex House

After dinner, we took some time to wander through Bourbon Street. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and it was cool to see all of the hustle and bustle and the excitement! There were hundreds of people walking around with drinks (it’s legal to have alcohol in public in certain areas of the city, including the French Quarter), street performers, and people throwing Mardi Gras beads from their balconies. It was such a vibe, so festive and lively, and I loved getting to take it all in. Someone threw alligator Mardi Gras beads at me, and I kept them as a memento! A fun souvenir from a uniquely New Orleans experience.

Day 3: Swamp tour and one last night in the French Quarter

This was our last full day in NOLA, and we made sure it was a good one. And, I will say, if there’s one excursion I’d recommend to nearly everyone visiting Louisiana, it’s a swamp tour. We spent the morning racing through the bayou on an airboat, and it was a hell of a good time.

Our boat reached speeds of about 30 MPH. And despite the cooler weather, we still spotted a dozen or so alligators. Several of them swam right up to our boat! We got to throw marshmallows to them, which was definitely a highlight. How many people can say they’ve fed a marshmallow to an alligator in the Louisiana bayou?

Our tour guide, I wish I could remember his name, was hilarious, knowledgeable, and clearly very passionate about the swamp and the local ecosystem. He also did a good job of using humor to put our group at ease at first, since a couple of us (myself included) had never been on a high speed air boat before. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be. I was nervous for the first minute but my fears quickly dissipated.

Who knew alligators like marshmallows?

For dinner, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at a restaurant in the French Quarter called Succotash. Usually when my husband and I take a trip, we try to get reservations for a nice sit-down restaurant with a touch of bougie vibes. This time, we went with Succotash, which also happened to be conveniently located just a couple minutes from our hotel.

Succotash had a very nice atmosphere and very inventive dishes. The staff were extremely nice and it was fun chatting with the host. We started with an order of gochujang deviled eggs topped with fried shrimp before ordering our main dishes.

For our mains, we decided to get seafood to keep the experience as New Orleans as possible. I got a dish called “Crab Menage a Trois”- fried softshell crabs with some lump crab and coconut crab curry. Tim got U10 Japanese scallops. This was easily one of the most memorable meals I had in New Orleans!

Crab Menage a Trois

To finish our final full day, we explored Armstrong Park, walked through the French Quarter once more, picked up a few souvenirs, and visited a local chocolate shop.

And yes, Gary the hotel cat stopped by again.

Gary walked in like she owned the place and napped for 2 hours on our bed!

Day 4: Po Boys, pharmacy history, and Royal Street

Before heading to the airport, we had one more afternoon ahead of us to squeeze in a few more New Orleans experiences.

First, we said goodbye to Gary.

Then, we got lunch at NOLA Po Boys. A po boy is a New Orleans staple sandwich. And while shrimp po boys are the classic choice, I was kind of over fried seafood by this point in the trip, so I opted for ham instead. It was good, despite the ham making me feel like it wasn’t a truly authentic po boy! Tim had a crawfish pie, which he enjoyed as well.

After lunch, we visited the Historical Pharmacy Museum. It was really interesting to see all of the very old medicines and devices that we used to treat people with. And suffice to say, I’m very happy to be alive during a time where medical science has advanced far beyond what we were seeing at the museum. There was some pretty crazy stuff. This turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly interesting stops of the trip.

After that, we went to The Legendairy Milkshake Bar. There, we shared a bananas foster milkshake topped with a torched banana. It was very over the top and very Instagrammable, as you can see.

Finally, we spent our last couple hours wandering down Royal St, browsing art galleries, gift shops, and watching street performers. The vibes on Royal St are absolutely immaculate and I do recommend checking it out on your upcoming trip. It’s artsy and luxurious and a lot of fun to explore.

Final Thoughts

Our trip to New Orleans was wonderful. And although we were only there for a few days, we packed in a lot of attractions, museums, and experiences. I expected great food, great history, and great culture, and that’s exactly what I got. It definitely has a very rich culture. And, as a foodie traveler, I loved the cuisine. No one does macaroni and cheese like New Orleans!

Four days felt long enough to get a perfect introduction to the city, and I left feeling like I had barely scratched the surface.

I’m glad I got to cross New Orleans off my bucket list, and if you’re planning your own trip there, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to meet a hotel cat named Gary, too.