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Here's a sneak peek from this week's episode.
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I'm Scott.
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And I'm Melissa. And we are
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the Sunshine
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Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those that just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you follow along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth. Our bucket list is full of exciting international destinations that we want to visit. But this past week, we had the opportunity to cross off a location that's been on our list for a really long time. In this episode, we're going to share about our recent trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. We're going to talk about where to stay, what to eat, and so many things to do while you're in New Orleans. So pack a bag and join us as we cross off this destination from our bucket list. We're certain that you're going to want to add it to your own list. I can't believe that this is already episode 30. I feel like we've only scratched the surface of everything that we want to talk about.
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Yes, I can either. It's hard to believe that it's been more than six months, more than half a year since we've been doing this. And so many fun things that we've talked about, so many packing tips, so many stories that
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we've reminisced about. Yeah. And, you know, bucket list really hasn't shrunk that much. I feel like it just continues to grow as we go.
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I agree. And I think that that's what you find, too, is when you visit a destination. So I feel like when we first got to New Orleans, you know, we were there like a couple of days that it's like, OK, we've seen so much. But then I think as you the more you explore, like then the more it makes you want to explore. But I feel like that that's going to be with any destination. And I remember reading that years ago in a Rick Steves book is that you're never going to be able to do everything no matter where you go, even if it's a place like New Orleans or an international destination. So it's just always a reason to, you know, plan another trip.
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And we had booked this trip around a meeting that I had there in New Orleans. And it was funny because, you know, several of the people were like, oh, my God, I can't believe that you guys have already done so much while you were here for the weekend.
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Yeah, that's true. And I think that that is one thing about us is we really do try to take advantage of, you know, the time that we have and, and making sure to some extent that we, you know, are super prepared and do some research. Although I think it's always good that we've talked about before. It's always good to just leave room though, in your schedule for things that come up and just walking around. And I felt like that we even had some rest time as well in the afternoons, you know, we would go back and get some rest before we tried to go for dinner. Yeah,
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yeah. Well, we made the most of our days. You know, I really laughed when I would tell people about us having New Orleans on our long list of, you know, destinations and places that we wanted to visit. But it's been something that's been there for a really long time on our list. We've just never done it.
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We haven't, I think a lot of times it's just so many things that we go international for. And then so many work trips that you have are international type things. And so this one just worked out well to be able to, to do both. Cause I think sometimes it is hard to, you know, make a trip like this a priority because it's not, I wouldn't say it's definitely. like a vacation, right? It's more of like a tourist destination. I mean, you do want to get out and do things and see things you, most people wouldn't typically go and just be like, okay, we're just going to relax.
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Yeah, and so we're going to have an opportunity to talk about, you know, New Orleans. I think depending on who you talk to, they have a different opinion about New Orleans and what it is. You know, there's there's definitely the, I don't know, kind of seedy side of New Orleans, I guess. But I think that's true with anywhere you go, especially, you know, some of the places like Amsterdam. Right. Imagine all the great and wonderful things that we saw and did in Amsterdam. But then you have like the red light district, which, you know, was interesting to walk through and and go and see. But would we stick around there and spend a lot of time in the red light district? No. And I think Bourbon Street in New Orleans was kind of the same thing. And
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I think it's true. You could say that about any city though, or really any place, but especially big cities, right? You're going to have places that you, like you described it more seedy where you have, you know, need to be more cautious or be more careful, but then like right around the corner, you have these great, You know tourist sites and in the case of New Orleans. Yes, you also have museums and You know parks and the cemeteries but then also the jazz bars and the famous bars and I mean so many Restaurants that you could I mean we talked about like in our Amelia Island episode like we lived over a year and we even talked about this weekend Okay, there's still places that we need to go and that would definitely be the case of New Orleans You just couldn't you know ever cover a all the places to eat as much as you want to. You just get too full. I mean, we're going
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to do our best to cover off of, you know, New Orleans. But one of the things I did want to say was how friendly the people were in New
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Orleans. Totally agree. Yes. Very friendly. Like everybody from people who, you know, worked at different places, but then just people that we would meet on the streetcar or in the streets or in the bars or wherever. I agree with that. Definitely very friendly and helpful.
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Great. Well, let's jump right in. And, you know, I guess one of the things that I would ask is what's something you wish you would have known before going to New Orleans?
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So, and this is also something we talk about. We are not good about planning far in advance and making dining reservations unless we really know far in advance that, okay, this is something that like we have to do and we need to put this on a list. But I do think that for the very popular places to eat, that you definitely need to plan ahead and make reservations. I did have somebody tell me, so just an example, Commander's Palace, we looked, We we probably could have gotten some if we had started planning when we knew this trip was happening. But we again was just like, OK, it's hard to know, like what day and what are our other plans going to be and when do we want to eat? Just because we are not. I mean, we enjoy food, but we're not like super foodies. I wouldn't say to where I say, OK, this is we have to do this or we're going to be completely disappointed. And so we didn't book that. And so that was, you know, out of the question. And I had somebody that we met there was like, oh, you can get a lunch reservation. And I'm like, no, I looked. Can't even get a lunch reservation there. So because they are popular, it's like the $1 martinis for lunch. And I think it was just a popular, probably always is, but a popular tourist Tom. And
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so, yeah. And commander's palace in particular, some places you can make reservations the day before stuff like that. That's not the case here. You needed to make those reservations well in advance.
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Absolutely. So that's probably just that would be the one thing that I would say would
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be helpful to know. The one thing that I thought about that I wish we knew before we visit there is like where you stay matters. Now, in our case, we were staying right on the edge of French Quarter, right there on Canal Street, and we were in a great location. But if we had have been picking this based on like, you know, our preference for Marriott hotels and stuff like that, we may not have stayed in as great of a location as what we ended up staying in.
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Yeah. And that's, I was going to agree with that for sure. Is that location here is especially, so if you want to spend most of your time in the French quarter, and so if you want to be available, you know, have availability to just be able to very quickly go to some, you know, bars or music venues at night, then you definitely want to be along that. So that is right along canal street on the French quarter side. And there were, there are a few hotels that are like closer to the river that then would be within walking distance, but maybe a few more blocks. And so then you do have to, you know, walk a little bit further, but I totally agree. That's where I would definitely recommend
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that you stay. Also to think about is like at night you're walking when you stay over on the riverside. you're walking away from the more crowded places, and so you're kind of getting away from that zone where there's safety in numbers kind of thing, right? And so it's just something to think about. Not that those are bad, and you could always get a taxi or an Uber or something to take you back to your hotel if you wanted to, or if you're in a big group, you'll be perfectly fine, but just something to kind of think about as location when you're booking your travel. And so on this trip, because the meeting that I was going to was at the Ritz Carlton and we were able to get a discounted rate because the meeting was being held there and so they guaranteed that rate a few days before and a few days after if you wanted to go and stay. We stayed there at the Ritz and that was a great hotel.
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Yeah, it was a fantastic hotel and we made use of the concierge because we had not made those reservations and wanting specifically on Sunday to have our brunch. And so he was able to come through and find us a place that was great, that had availability and just take that off our plate while we went out, eat, I think, and took care of that for us. Yeah,
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found an absolutely fabulous place for us to go. And I think we can talk about that in just a little while. So what would you say was your favorite thing about visiting
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New Orleans? So can I be honest with you for a minute? The first time that we walked, I guess, out of the hotel and went into that French Quarter and went down to where Bourbon Street was, I think it was just a bit overwhelming. And I was just like, like, our short time here is going to be plenty of time. But part of that probably was like we got in right after lunch or so being like a late lunch, we were pretty hungry, as is the case with us a lot of times. So I think part of it was that right. And then just being able to find a place and when things are crowded. And thankfully, that was when we had talked to the concierge and he was like, oh, you know, where have you thinking about going? If that's super busy, like I would recommend this. And, um, we'll talk about in a second and to just being like perfect because it wasn't like chaotic. We didn't have to wait in a long line. We were able to eat pretty quickly. So I think that was my first, it was a little
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bit on the quieter side.
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It was, I think that was just my first, I don't know, culture shock introduction. Like you're hungry, you don't know where things are. So I think that is part of it too, right? Like just getting your bearings because after a day or so we were like, Oh, you know, it's down a block and over a block. And so I think a lot of that is, is part of it as well. And so, but, but now, like I said, we would be ready to go back in a heartbeat and there's, you know, so many more things that we could do in places that we could eat.
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Yeah, and where we were staying was one block off of Bourbon Street. So right there in that main area. And so, yeah, I mean, I imagine walking out of the hotel, having that little bit of hangriness, you know, and really wasn't hangry because at that point, I think we were just hungry because we had been traveling all morning. Just not you don't want to have to deal with all the hustle and bustle and stuff like that. And like you said, we're just looking for somewhere to eat, get settled in and then start exploring. Yeah. And I guess we could have, you
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know, you could have grabbed something in the hotel or something like that. But when you're in New Orleans, it's like, oh, we have so many places on our list. Right. In just a few days, you want to want to check those off. So let me get back to the question, because you asked me, what was my favorite thing? So In the end, it probably ended up being just that culture around Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. And we were fortunate enough to be there on Saturday and on the weekend and in October when it's real popular for weddings because the weather is a lot cooler. And so there were a lot of the second line parades right going on and just a lot of activity a lot of people So then really seeing, you know, I would I would imagine friday night saturday night being the the most active time and then also like taking part in some of the tours right and just being able to hear some of the history from you know, somebody who really knows it and has studied it and has learned it and stuff like that. And so I think between those two things, you really felt immersed in, you know, what the history of New Orleans is and then what it is now. Yeah. You talked a little
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bit about it, but when's a good time to visit New Orleans?
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So we had the most perfect weather, almost to the point where one afternoon evening it was actually pretty chilly and then it warmed back up. But I would say we had the most perfect weather. In the summer, I can imagine absolutely, you know, like it is for us in Florida, but just hot and humid. I mean, you are right there on the river, you're right near the coast. and just how hard it would be I noticed that when we did the cemetery tour like they had tents up close to where he would stop and because I just imagine the scorching heat so I would say that fall and spring are probably great times to visit and And wild winters, too. So I'm sure that would be, you know, an awesome time, too. I would say that you do have to just be aware that in that fall time, you definitely have that risk of hurricanes. And one of the guys that we had talked to, we were enjoying some of the Halloween decorations in the Garden District, and he made a comment as, oh, it's going to be, it's nice this year because we don't, we didn't have the threat of hurricanes coming, you know, leading right up to Halloween, because sometimes that could definitely be a possibility. So if you have a trip plan, then just making sure that you watch the weather and, you know, are able to cancel things or move things around if. But if you could visit in October, I think fantastic. Like it was warm, but not, you know, scorching hot and just fantastic. Yeah. Some of
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the days it got a little bit warmer, but I'll tell you, I, most of the time I wore pants, a long sleeve shirt, a vest, right? I guess the Florida's catching up with me because I was kind of cold.
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So of course, the other popular time to visit would be to be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Right. So you're talking about mid to late February, early March, just depending on how that calendar falls. And of course, right around, especially around the time of Fat Tuesday. And so that would be obviously a popular time. But I would definitely just say plan far in advance. Right. And so in that case, you're probably not there as much to try to book those reservations for the you know, those restaurants and things like that, and just making sure that you secure your hotel accommodations well in advance, because that's the most popular time, I would say, in New Orleans. Yeah,
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but I think in Mardi Gras, I think I would change the location where I wanted to stay. So let's, let's jump into that. I mean, well, first of all, before we get into where to stay is, who would you say this trip is for?
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So I was so, I guess, surprised because we saw people of all ages. I think there were a lot of people that were older than us there, probably like they had been there before, right? To go again and see that. But of course, then of course, there's a lot of young people, right? And then, but families, a lot of families, a lot of kids. Now, I would say, You know, during the day, it's fun to walk around in the French Quarter and go down Bourbon Street and things like that. But I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend having your kids down there, you
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know, at night. But well, if you take your kids into Bourbon Street in the French Quarter any time of the day, just be prepared to answer a lot of questions.
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Right, but there are so many things and we'll give a short list closer to the end, but there's so many things with kids and you could talk about history and there's so many different things that they could learn, you know, about the city and things like that. So I would say people of all ages. Walking
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on the edges of the French Quarter.
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Yes, I will say, though, a lot of places it is like, you know, the streets, the sidewalks, you know, they're old and stuff, too. So we did see people with scooters, though, in wheelchairs and down Bourbon Street and a couple of other places. There are places where, you know, part of the street is blocked off. So it might be a little bit easier access for those type of things. But just being aware that, you know, sometimes it is, you know, broken sidewalks and especially in the Garden District. Right. The trees are old and the sidewalks are So just, you know, paying attention to that as far as mobility issues, but we saw people all ages. Yeah.
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The, the sidewalks, especially out in the garden district were very jacked up from the tree roots, how they'd push the concrete up. And, you know, we knew that from living in noon and. Where, you know, living in that historic area, those trees have been there for hundreds of years. The sidewalks are relatively new, right? So it's the sidewalks encroaching on those trees, not the other way around. All right. So, you know, let's talk about where to stay. And I think this is going to be a little bit dependent upon what's your reason for being there. Right.
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Like, and I would say, especially where you want to spend the majority of your time so that you're not spending a lot of time or money, right. Taking taxis, taking Ubers. I would not recommend driving. No. If you're well, if you're staying
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maybe in the garden district or somewhere like that, I think driving would be OK, but if you're staying in the French Quarter and you're going to spend most of your time in the French Quarter, do not rent a car. You're going to waste so much of your time trying to get anywhere in the first place and then you don't need it.
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Yeah. And like you would have to pay a lot to park at the hotel and we wouldn't recommend parking on the street. So for two reasons, so we'll have to share these two incidents. So one night we were walking and there was a girl parallel parked between two cars and she literally slammed into the car behind her, slammed into the car in front of her, slammed into the car behind her again. Of course, then people are talking to her on the street and she was like, Wow, they're too close to me. So the car in front of her and behind her, I mean, we, we kept on going. So, but I'm sure that she did not stick around to say, oh, I hit your car. Second incident is we were walking, I think, to breakfast one morning or down to see Jackson square the next morning. And there was one car.
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real early. Yeah.
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And the, all the windows had been smashed sometime that night. So I would not recommend, you know, like I said, driving now, if you're driving in, I guess like, yeah, just, just park the car. But if you're flying in and you're not staying in the garden district, I would say just take transportation and if you did plan to say go out to some other something that's outside maybe see if you could rent a car for that day or figure that out just just because just I wouldn't leave my car right there in the French Quarter and like you said you wouldn't want to drive and we saw people who were like would come out of a bar and then they would like call a Uber or Lyft or something like that And there's like we could have walked back faster because then they've got to go way around Well, first of all the traffic like it's like stopped, right? They're having to go way around to get back to the hotel So like we could walk the six eight ten blocks, whatever so much faster than a car could get you back there
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Yeah, because for the most part, Bourbon Street is pedestrian traffic only. I mean, I remember the first day there was some car traffic there, but past that, I remember there being gates and stuff like that set up. And so it was pedestrian traffic only, which creates a huge traffic congestion for the rest of the French Quarter. So I wouldn't want to drive there at all. That would be miserable to me. And then, you know, like you said, I can't believe anybody would get an Uber or a Lyft or a taxi because they're going to pay a lot of money for just sitting in traffic.
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Yeah, so the cross streets, right? People could cross on those cross streets, but it was just like traffic, traffic, traffic. And then you have the traffic stopping for the second line parades and for the carriages and for this and that. So that would be our recommendation. So just to make it easy, let's give a few examples. So we had mentioned the Ritz Carlton, which is several blocks up on Canal Street fairly near Bourbon Street, but on that same side of Canal Street close by was also a Hyatt Hotel. There was a New Orleans Marriott Hotel as well. And then as you go closer to the river, so right on the river, there is the Four Seasons New Orleans. There was also the Hilton New Orleans Riverside and a West of New Orleans. And then kind of in between those two things is an intercontinental and an Omni and a Le Meridien and a Lowe's hotel. And so just lots of options right there. But I would say just personally, that was our favorite place to be, right? Because then we could enjoy those music venues at night and then just be back at the hotel. But then like during the day, we could go down to the Garden District and see some things.
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And so we said that if we were, we would like to, but if we're ever there during Mardi Gras, we would stay in the Garden District. So stay outside of the madness, which is going to be the French Quarter with all the, you know, hundreds of thousands of people or how millions, however many come in to the French Quarter for Mardi Gras. Stay out in the Gardens District and you're still going to have the parades that come down St. Charles there and you can enjoy the parades without having to be in the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter.
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Right. And there is the streetcar that goes back and forth to the garden district. Or you could have, you know, an Uber, a Lyft or a taxi or whatever, drive you in most, you know, most of the way or get you pretty close and then just
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drop you off as well. But out in the garden district, you're most likely going to be staying at a Airbnb or a bed and breakfast, something like that. Yes. Something boutique. So that gets us to where to eat. There was no shortage of really good food while we were there in New Orleans. Let's talk about one
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more hotel that you may or may not want to stay at, just depending on what is it you want to do. So right in the middle of Bourbon Street, there is actually a four points by Sheraton, like right in the action with like balconies that overlook Bourbon Street. So depending on if you care, if you sleep half the night or not, or if you want that balcony, just looking over the action, that might be a place that you may or may not want to stay. Just wanted to throw that in there because it's very interesting because there's not really any, you know, there's residences and probably some other things, but that was really the only hotel that we saw like right there in the action. Yeah,
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I don't know how anybody would get any sleep there, but like Melissa said, if you want to be there for overlooking the parades down Bourbon Street and all the activities and people watching and throwing beads or whatever your reason for being there is, that's probably a good, good location for you.
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And one other note, if you do decide to book like an Airbnb or a VRBO or even probably a bed and breakfast, you might actually end up with a haunted place. Yeah. We can
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talk more about that in a little bit. All right.
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So let's go where to eat or what to eat too, especially.
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Yeah. So some of the, you know, things right off the top of the head that can say that you can eat while you're there, you know, Gulf shrimp, gumbo, etouffee, turtle soup, jambalaya, Gulf shrimp, muffalettas. I'd never heard of a muffaletta before, but learned what that was while we were there. And then
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also beignets. Yeah. So of course, beignets are probably like one of the most famous things to have and eat and try when you're there.
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So beignet is like a donut. It's a square donut without a hole and it's covered in powdered sugar. Yep. That's how
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I would describe it. Yeah. And it's almost more, I don't know, is it a mix between like a cakey and a yeasty donut? I don't know. It's, it's kind of hard to say. It has really has a characteristic all its own. Yeah.
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Yeah, so one of the things that people tell you that you need to do while you're in New Orleans is go to Café du Monde. And Café du Monde is famous for their beignets. But we found that their beignets aren't quite as good as, say, the Ritz-Carlton.
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So this may be an unpopular opinion, but, and we wondered if, so here's what we actually did is that we had had the day we got in, we had had that kind of latest lunch and then we ended up having on a tour that we're going to tell you about and then go into a music venue and listen to music for a while. And we left there, we're like, Oh, we're a little bit hungry but you know nothing really that was still open you know they had pizza they had wings they had hot dogs they had you know as we walked down bourbon street we're like oh we don't really want any of that we get back to the hotel we're like okay but we really need to go eat something and so i don't know i think you may have said you want to go to cafe du monde So it's like 11 ish, 1130 at night. And so they were open. So I don't know if they're open till midnight or they're open 24 hours. Yeah. So I'm not sure about that. And I don't know if that was like, you could order stuff 24 hours, you know, there. But anyway, it was open at least till midnight. So we were safe. And so we were able to no line, right? So be prepared. If you go any other time of the day, the line is going to be long and they have a carryout window and they have a place where you can sit down. You can just like first come first serve, wait for a table. And basically it's beignets, it's coffee, cafe au lait, it's hot chocolate. I think that's pretty much it. Right. And it's just like constantly there's powdered sugar, literally everywhere. We're going to put some, put some videos and photos on Instagram, but there's pictures, there's powdered sugar everywhere. So we did not have to wait. And so I would say while the beignets were, I mean, they were good, they were pretty heavy, right. And pretty thick.
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Yeah. Very doughy.
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Yes, very doughy. So I don't know if it was just that time of day. But we also did have them at the Ritz-Carlton. It was cute. They have a little, a little cart. And sometimes, I guess it was, I saw it more on the weekends, right, as we were checking in, but they were like little small beignets. But I did want to try their bigger beignets. So I had those for breakfast one morning there at the hotel because I had asked the guy at the little cart, oh, can I take your picture? Can I take a video of you serving it? And so he said, sure. And he said, I've heard that ours are the best beignets. And so I said, well, yeah, I, you know, tend to kind of agree because they were just different. They were different. They were much lighter. And it could be that they just, you know, they're having to mass produce them so much or it was late at night, but that was our experience as well. And so I had them for breakfast. They were very light and fluffy, not heavy dough in the middle and very excellent.
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Well, we weren't alone in this opinion. During one of the breaks that we had there in the meeting, they served the beignets and I heard someone else make that same comment of, Oh, these are really good. They taste better than the ones at Cafe du Monde. So.
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So it may be a controversial opinion, but that was the opinion that we have formed. But we, of course, well, we had to try it for ourselves. So please make sure if you haven't go try it for yourself. Also, let us know what you thought if you tried some other beignets, what you thought. But this is somewhere that I had heard about. I remember my parents talking about going to New Orleans like years ago when I was a small child. And having in our refrigerator, a lot of times having some Cafe Du Monde beignet mix in the can that you can buy. Like that was, it's not like we made them that much, but we would have that in the refrigerator. So we did try one other. So there's a very popular place that is, has several places like we would see throughout is Cafe Beignet. And so I tried some of those in the afternoon, one afternoon, and I would say that those were in between. So
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let's talk about a few of the places that we ate other than beignets, because we did have some of that really good food that I mentioned, the gumbo and the toufee and the jambalaya. So when we first got there, we went to this restaurant called Redfish Grill. I think they're known for their oysters. There was somebody who was there who was actually chucking the oysters when we sat there at the bar. They also have like, we were there during when they had a happy hour menu. So you could have oysters, you could have a few little appetizers, and then they also had their gumbo. So I think that was the things that we could have during that time frame that we were there. But it looked like they had a traditional Creole menu, seafood menu, during the rest of the day.
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Yeah. And it was excellent. Like the decor was excellent. The people were friendly. The food was so good. So we had taken a peek at that happy hour menu because they weren't serving dinner for a little while longer. And it was like, Oh, well that's what we wanted anyway. Right. You know, those fresh oysters and they had some specialty cocktails and things like that. So, and then Scott, what were the,
00:30:01 SPEAKER_00
That's just kind of like right across the street from Felix's oyster bar. Cause that was one of the places that we had heard about, but that's the one where the concierge said, if they're busy, don't go there, go to this other place instead. Yeah.
00:30:14 SPEAKER_01
And cause we were pretty hungry and there was a lawn like waiting to get in. I mean, not super long, but there was a lawn waiting to get in and this was just across the way. And so we had our pick of the pick of seats and sat at the bar. Scott, what were the, the, the booting booting balls?
00:30:30 SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I don't know exactly how you say it, but that's what it was. And these were made of alligator sausage.
00:30:36 SPEAKER_01
And it was almost fried. It was in a dough ball, almost reminded you of, I would say almost remind you of a hush puppy, but with that, that alligator booting sausage, that was excellent too. So they had several things that were just like probably. Care characteristic Cajun, you know, in new Orleans with the oysters and stuff like that, that we could enjoy for that meal. So red fish grill, excellent food.
00:31:02 SPEAKER_00
And then for the one day when we went, or Sunday when we went to have brunch, the concierge was able to get us a reservation at Broussard's.
00:31:12 SPEAKER_01
Right. And so after the fact, we realized that we're so many people who were like, you haven't been to new Orleans. You haven't had brunch until you've been to Broussard's. As a matter of fact, we met some people who had stumbled upon a private party there one time and had just been, you know, welcomed in and as well. And so excellent. I think just very traditional brunch type food. Uh, so you had chicken and waffles and of course they had
00:31:42 SPEAKER_00
Endless mimosas. They
00:31:44 SPEAKER_01
had bottomless mimosas. It's several varieties of eggs benedict. They had shrimp and grits and I saw somebody else. I saw somebody order those shrimp and grits and the shrimp were like the size of like your hand and the whole piece of shrimp and So just an excellent place. We had, like we mentioned, fantastic weather. We had a seat in the courtyard and a little jazz band came around, you know, play some music. And so the other funny thing that I would say about that is then it's probably the only place I've ever been. So you enjoy your bottomless mimosas. And because it is open container in that whole area, they're like, oh, let me fix you one to go. Right. Because usually it's like, OK, they want you to Not really have that many, but he was so thrilled. I was like, oh, OK, I'll take one to go. Just so interesting to have a place where it's like, OK, here's here's something to go from
00:32:40 SPEAKER_00
the restaurant. And then so that night for dinner, we ate at Muriel's on Jackson Square. Now, Muriel's is a well-known restaurant. It's been there for a long time, but it has a bit of a sordid history, if you will.
00:32:55 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so I was actually very glad that we had done that haunted tour the night before to learn about this. Of course, they told us a little bit about it, but we kind of had a preview as well. So tell them about
00:33:07 SPEAKER_00
the history of... Yeah, so where we walked in, there's a table that's set up down in the bottom of a stairwell. And in that table, you know, it's got, there's a few seats around it. It's got a couple of glasses of wine. I think some, some bread on the table and the candles are lit, but there's nobody sitting at this table. Well, at least nobody that we could see was sitting at this table. And so evidently the owner of that building, back many years ago, was an avid gambler. He loved to gamble, but he loved that building, which is where he lived. And one night, in a hand gone bad, he bet the building on that hand and lost it. And so as they came to force him out of the residence where he lived, he decided to go up into one of the rooms and kill himself. And so they say that he still lives there in that restaurant. In matter of fact, we kicked off the evening in what they call their seance room. And they said that they've been known to have beer bottles and glasses fly off of tables and break there in that room.
00:34:19 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and so in the tour the night before, he had told us that when they first opened the restaurant, that it was like broken plates, broken glasses, silverware would get moved and stuff like that. And so then when they finally figured out, like you're saying, to have him a table, to have his wine poured, and then everything's been fine. And so every
00:34:40 SPEAKER_00
night they do this, they pour his wine, they set the bread on the table and, you know, set the candles up. And so it's been been OK since then. And it was very creepy,
00:34:51 SPEAKER_01
though. Later in the evening, they had it because I didn't notice it playing before, but they like turned up like more like creepier music and stuff like that. too, as we were kind of leaving.
00:35:04 SPEAKER_00
It was like choral voices, you know, singing out or whatever. But that's Muriel's. Great place to eat. The food was really good. I think I had some, you know, gumbo. We did have turtle soup there. Something that I don't think that I would ever try, you know, talked about a little bit about it on our Galapagos trip is the giant tortoises. The sailors would, you know, go into the Galapagos, they would take the tortoises And they would chop their legs off one at a time and make turtle soup out of it. So not sure that I really wanted to eat turtle soup, but I did give it a try. Right. That was something that somebody
00:35:40 SPEAKER_01
who has traveled there many times recommended. So it's like, okay, well, while we're here, let's try it.
00:35:46 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And so Melissa talked about going to Cafe du Monde at night. And then finally, Melissa, you went to a restaurant and had some oysters there. I was in the meeting, so I didn't go with you. But you want to talk a little bit about that?
00:36:00 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so I actually had two people recommend this place. It's called Drago's Seafood Restaurant. And it is not the original location, but it is convenient to there in the French Quarter. It's down by the river in the Hilton New Orleans on the very bottom floor. So that's close to where like the cruise ship would come in or the outlet mall type places. So their char-grilled oysters are the thing there. So of course I had to try that and you could get a half a dozen or a dozen and so I wasn't sure so the oysters that I had had at the Redfish Grill were massively big. They're
00:36:40 SPEAKER_00
like the size of
00:36:41 SPEAKER_01
your palm. Oh yeah, they were so big. So I started with half a dozen so basically they grill them and I could see like they have the big like commercial grills like set up to the side and then they would like you could see the flames every once in a while and so they basically it's about the butter and the parmesan cheese they use on them and they char grill them So good. In fact, that I had to say, okay, I'll do six more. So good. So highly recommend that. So that was a great recommendation. So definitely put that on your list. Now that place does not take reservations. It is like just walk in only first come first serve, but it was a, it was a large place. So you would normally think, okay, a restaurant and a hotel, but because this does have a reputation and a reputation for that.
00:37:26 SPEAKER_00
And we enjoyed the breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton. We had that on the day that we were leaving. It was a fantastic breakfast. You can order off the menu or a buffet, but it was all really good. Now there's a number of places that were recommended to us, either by people who live there in New Orleans or people who visit New Orleans often. We didn't have time to visit all those, but I think we'll put some, some of them in the show notes. And so if you're looking for good recommendations, these places became highly recommended to us. Yes. And
00:37:58 SPEAKER_01
most of them are just scattered throughout mainly the French quarter, but then the garden district, a few other places, and some of them have multiple locations. But yeah, I think you could definitely have a culinary tour of new Orleans for quite a number of days.
00:38:14 SPEAKER_00
Which I think that brings us to our next topic is kind of what to do in New Orleans. And one of the things you could do is do a food tour.
00:38:22 SPEAKER_01
Yes, you definitely could do a food tour. And I would think that would be a great way to like experience. We've done those in a couple of places, like in Belize, we did one. I think that would be a great way to in a short amount of time, right, to get a taste of a lot of different things and then hear about like these. A lot of these restaurants have such a history as well. So I would say that would probably be something definitely to put on the list. So I will say you asked earlier about what was something I would recommend or give a tip. I was glad that you had booked a couple of tours in advance for us this time. You actually did the research and booked those. So I was glad that you had done that. And there's lots of different tours that you can do. But the two that I think were of most interest to us were you did a haunted tour. And that was with a company. We did book it off Viator, but it was with a company called Witches Brew Tours. and you just met downtown in the French Quarter. And what I liked about it was, we got there a little bit early, and they did have like a little room. And it was almost like a little preview of the different things that you were going to see. But what I liked about it was that they talked about, like, I guess, different time periods, right? So they picked like, New Orleans has a pretty, you know, long history For a place in the united states and so they talked about Like these different I guess time periods and so it kind of gave you the history of new orleans as it went even up to Like as recent as hurricane katrina, so I appreciated that about the tour So
00:39:55 SPEAKER_00
we learned a little bit about voodoo and where voodoo comes from. It comes from West Africa mixed with the Catholicism that was, you know, prevalent in the French Quarter. And so between, you know, it's not like witchcraft per se, and I think a lot of people think about it as witchcraft. It's about the spirit and the spirits sticking with something, you know, physical. Right? So like a building or an object or something like that. And, you know, there were a lot of voodoo priestesses and so forth and priests that were kind of intertwined with the Catholic Church a little bit. And that's where the big history of voodoo came about. And there's some very famous and notorious, or maybe not notorious, but very famous practitioners of voodoo who lived throughout the time. And we learned about that on the
00:40:54 SPEAKER_01
tour. Yeah. One thing he mentioned was, I think we have a view of voodoo that's more like curses and things like that. And he kept calling, referring to it as like Hollywood version of voodoo. But in reality, that wasn't the intention or the practice of it there in New Orleans.
00:41:11 SPEAKER_00
In anywhere in New Orleans, you can go in and buy a voodoo doll, right? So don't get me wrong. It's not like this was some kind of great thing or whatever. But, you know, some of the people are like, don't be afraid to go into a voodoo shop because they're not going to put a curse on you just for going in the voodoo shop. You can learn more about it and the history of it by going in these different places. And so we did book the tour. We learned about vampires that lived in downtown New Orleans in the French Quarter. And that was pretty scary. And like, these are well-documented cases as well. Some of which they say are even documented in film. But I definitely started looking at people differently after we heard about those vampires. Because I think I saw a few of them.
00:42:00 SPEAKER_01
And so you could actually do like tour that was more, I guess, catered toward voodoo or witchcraft or that kind of thing, too, if those are the other types you're interested. You could also just do just a French Quarter walking tour, just where it just talks about like the straight history without it being like what we did, which was
00:42:20 SPEAKER_00
Well, I'm just laughing because remember the old ladies that walked up when we were trying to check in and they were talking about that they had booked some kind of tour and they weren't sure what they ended up on
00:42:33 SPEAKER_01
was a pub crawl. Yes. So pay attention, I guess, to what you pay attention to what it is that you are. what that is you're booking. So I guess, speaking of that, so I guess what's neat about this tour is that if you want to take a drink along, right, because it is open container there, and then about halfway through we did stop if you need to find a restroom or whatever, because it was a couple hour tour, and there was a couple of bars there, and then you could stop in and get a drink to take it for the rest of your tour. But you can do carriage tours. So right. So if like walking is not your thing, you could do a horse drawn carriage tour and learn about the history. We saw some people at night even. So I know they have daytime bicycle tours, but at night we saw one where they were like all lit up as well. So you mentioned the food tours.
00:43:16 SPEAKER_00
These are e-bike
00:43:17 SPEAKER_01
tours. Oh yeah, the e-bike tours. You mentioned the food tours. And the other one we did was the cemetery tour. So one thing that you definitely need to know about the cemeteries now is they are not, especially the St. Louis Cemetery, number one, which is right on the edge of the French Quarter, and then the Lafayette Cemetery, number one, which is in the Garden District, Those used to be just open to the public. And so they are now not. I think they've had some vandalism and some different things. So in order to enter those, you do need to book a tour. And that was just so interesting to hear about the history of the cemetery. Some of the cemeteries have been moved, right? Why the cemeteries are above ground. How many people are actually buried. in those crypts. And then of course, just some of the famous people and the famous things that you can see on the cemetery tours. So, and that one wasn't, that one wasn't as long. That was like an hour. And, but just to get a good overview and be able to go inside.
00:44:14 SPEAKER_00
And by the way, neither of these tours were very expensive. Even the VIP tour that we did for the, the haunted tour or whatever, much smaller group than the regular tour. Cause the regular tour could have dozens of people on it. We had like 12, but I think that was like $35 for that per person for that tour. And then of course the cemetery tour, maybe around $20 a person. but you had a guide, you will need to tip the guides at the end. So make sure you're preparing for that to be able to give a cash tip. And so we'll
00:44:48 SPEAKER_01
put some links to those tours that we did specifically in the show notes and then other ones that if we had more time or we're go back that things that we would recommend like a culinary tour or some of those
00:45:00 SPEAKER_00
things like a swamp tour. We just didn't even begin to think about that. But a lot of people that go to New Orleans do swamp tours. Now we did do the Sazerac house, and that's something that I would recommend. If you give yourself two, three hours max to go there, it's a great history of the spirit that they made in New Orleans. And then also you had lots of opportunities to taste different cocktails made with those spirits along the tour. It was very interactive. One of the best tours I've ever done. It was free. Yes, it
00:45:38 SPEAKER_01
was free. You just have to do do need to go on their website and book a day and book a time slot, probably especially when they're going to be super busy. But we we didn't have any trouble doing that. But yeah, I couldn't believe it. Absolutely free. Now, if you want to have an upgraded experience where you actually go through something that's more of a tasting and they do have some different ones like that, you can book. But yeah, very well done. An excellent museum. And if you were in a super hurry, I mean, and you didn't really dig into it, you could probably do it in an hour, but it is self-guided and so you could really get into it as much as you wanted to. Yeah, super interesting, especially for us because we have done. The Kentucky bourbon trail and Sazerac is the parent company of Buffalo trace. Right.
00:46:22 SPEAKER_00
And some, and a
00:46:23 SPEAKER_01
lot of other brands that we were like, Oh, they own them. And so they had like a mini, uh, distilling place there where you could see, you know, like how the process would go and stuff like that. So, excellent. And that's just right there across it's on canal street, just right, right near the area where we were. And
00:46:40 SPEAKER_00
while I was working one day, you went and did the National World War II Museum.
00:46:45 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so the World War II Museum, if you are into history, it is definitely worth a visit. And again, you can just have like a basic ticket, but then you can go as deep as having special tours or having, you know, staying to watch the film. So lots of different things, but just an excellent, a well-done museum. From what I understand, it actually started out, it was just really going to be more about Louisiana history. And World War Two, but then just kind of turned into and still growing from what I could tell that they keep adding to it into just a comprehensive tour. And so that would be one that would be good for older children who are studying. American history and world history to really go through that. Because again, the way that they presented that, the interactiveness and the videos and the way that they had the different the rooms like themed and decorated to where you really felt like that you were there. It was just really, really well
00:47:45 SPEAKER_00
done. Well, boy, we could just keep going because I feel like there's just so much stuff to do in New Orleans. And one weekend really isn't enough time.
00:47:54 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like I mentioned, I was like, Oh, okay, this will be plenty of time to see everything. But now there's quite a few things and especially restaurants to
00:48:03 SPEAKER_00
eat at other music type venues. That's what I'm gonna say is at night. That's one of the great things about New Orleans is at night, you can do all that stuff during the day. And then you have a ton of opportunities at night to catch live music. Now on Bourbon Street, there is no shortage of places where you can go in and hear music, right? It's blaring all around you. You'll have bands, no historical significance. They're going to be like cover bands or hip hop or, you know, things like that up and down Bourbon Street. So plenty of places to hop in if that's your thing. especially if you're there with a group of friends, maybe a bachelorette party or something like that. There's plenty of places to pop in and dance to some old music and stuff like that. However, one of the things that we really enjoyed was stopping in and going to some of the jazz
00:48:58 SPEAKER_01
music. Yeah. So we had found, I don't know if anybody recommended or we just saw it. So the first night,
00:49:05 SPEAKER_00
Oh, but he thought
00:49:06 SPEAKER_01
it was closed. So that's the other thing thinking of which don't necessarily rely on what like Google maps and the hour say, because he actually looked it up for us and he was like, Oh, I think they're closed. And we thought, Hmm, that seems a little strange. But when we went by, they were definitely open. So take, I guess, what the updates in Google maps with a grain of salt, but Mason bourbon and, and, and, and, and, excellent, just very traditional jazz music. We actually ended up going three times. And so it seemed like it was like a certain music company, but they have a lot of musicians, right? So we saw the singer there was a couple of times, one of the players who did like the clarinet and stuff, he was there every night, but then the bass player or the piano player or the, or the drummer, like switched out. So highly recommend that one. They do, they did like four or five sets every night, no cover charge. I think they, you know, requested that you do like, you know, one drink minimum per set or something like that. So we enjoyed that one. And then of course a very popular one that had been recommended to us was the Pat O'Brien's and specifically the, the dueling piano bar. So we enjoyed that one night. So that was an excellent place to go. And then we actually got to go also to Preservation Hall as part of a private event. We highly recommend that you go see if it's open, see what's playing, or see who's going to be there and see if you can get in and do that. Small venue there, but just
00:50:37 SPEAKER_00
like authentic. Yeah, Preservation Hall is, you know, they say that their mission is to preserve this historic jazz music. in the state of like the 1960s. So like Preservation Hall, the room, I mean, it was wood benches and they hadn't touched the room since like 1961, I think they said. And so think about all of these jazz musicians who've come to there and played. And so, you know, that was a great experience to see that the music was authentic jazz and So
00:51:14 SPEAKER_01
talented. I mean, absolutely so talented. Yeah. And then, you know,
00:51:19 SPEAKER_00
like I said, we probably didn't hit all of the great places. You might come back and tell us that there was like 10 other places. I wouldn't doubt it.
00:51:30 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And so one other person had recommended to go, I guess, further out to Frenchman street. And we just, you know, with having to take a, you would need to take an Uber or a taxi or something out there and just being so close and being within walking distance. We didn't. But if you were staying further out that way, there are some really authentic jazz clubs there as well. Yeah. And so I think we did have a few other ones that we saved. So we'll put the links to those other ones in the show notes as well. And
00:51:57 SPEAKER_00
then just real quick, there were a few bars that were recommended to us to check out Lafitte's blacksmith shop bar. We did go there on the haunted tour. And so we had a drink from there. The Roosevelt hotel bar, French 75 bar and 21st amendment bar at La Lucerne.
00:52:16 SPEAKER_01
And so a couple of other tips. So definitely take the streetcar if you can. And it's not too difficult, really, to figure out. They do have an app. So it's the La Paz RTA app. So if you go looking for it, that's probably the easiest way to do it because other than that, you did have to have exact change, which I think was like $1.25. per ride, or you could do a whole day pass for $3. But you can very quickly and easily, they've got that app set up very efficiently. You can do it with Apple Pay and stuff like that. And then on that, you can look to see. So of course, if you wanted to have the buses, if you wanted to have the ferry boats, the river boats as well, we mainly just looked at it. The map was very easy to tell. So basically, with those streetcars, it has four lines. And if you're right there on Canal Street, that would probably be a great place to walk down the Canal Street. to to take those if you're in a hurry
00:53:11 SPEAKER_00
though don't take the streetcar yeah so
00:53:13 SPEAKER_01
they do they do stop frequently right and so i guess it's we think of it as oh that's a very touristy thing to do but no like local people were riding this right you could tell they were getting we went in the afternoon they were getting off work or there was kids you know coming from school and and different things like that using those streetcars but that would be the best place right right there on canal street you could hop on it just a very inexpensive way to do that you could take it north and south that one went out like I said to the garden district and back and then there's one along the waterfront that you know you could you could change but so definitely don't miss that but if you're concerned more about like where's it going and paying for it and things
00:53:51 SPEAKER_00
like that use that app. So Melissa this is a destination and as with any destination we always like to wind up by asking you what do you need to pack for this trip?
00:54:01 SPEAKER_01
So I would definitely say comfortable shoes. And I, I took a lot of my sandals and I wish I had actually brought another pair of tennis shoes because the, the streets are a little kind of yuck. So I was just like, okay, every time we went back, I was like, I need to take a shower, wash my feet, that kind of thing. So closed toe shoes. I mean, and you are going to be walking a lot, which a lot of people do like to wear tennis shoes for that. And so we needed a mixture of clothes just because those temperatures did dip down. So I actually should have brought like another jacket or another sweatshirt. So just look at the weather, the time that you're coming. So if you're there in the summer, you're going to want shorts and tank tops, just like probably the absolute coolest thing you have. But I will say, A lot of those restaurants where you need reservations, they do have a dress code, especially places like Brennan's and Commander's Palace. And so look on their website to make sure that you know. So like I think at Commander's Palace, they really wanted like men in jackets. And I think said jeans were okay, but it was like absolutely no ripped jeans and things like that. Because I did, you know, look as I was like looking to see if we could get reservations. So pay attention to that. And then, I mean, if you do go to those nicer restaurants, you are going to want to dress for dinner. So I had taken several, you know, sundresses and that would have been easy, you know, for the summertime too, as well. So, but we also needed a mix of jackets and, you know, jeans and shorts. And so just pay attention. Cause we did have from like what high fifties up to like 80 in the day. And so it was a pretty big temperature swing. So if you're not used to that.
00:55:35 SPEAKER_00
And if you're going during the summer, you're definitely going to want to take, you know, warm weather clothes, shorts, you know, like button up shirts and stuff like that to be a little bit on the nicer side, but you're not going to want to wear jeans.
00:55:49 SPEAKER_01
No, for sure not. And I would say like, just pay attention if it's going to be like rainy weather, right? Pack your rain jacket and umbrella, things like that. I would also say, like for women, just have some kind of bag. I mean, we never felt unsafe or anything like that, but just have some kind of like, I just took a cross body bag that then I could wear in front of me. you know, to just have phones and stuff like that, but just kind of watching. There were a couple of times where it was like when we were down closer to Jackson Square, like looking out over the river and this guy was like, you know, talking to Scott and you're like, is he being friendly? Like, what is he doing? Like pat you on the back. And so it's kind of, you're like kind of thinking like, watch your pockets. And you did mention, Oh, I've got on these like shorts or your Fabletics pants or something like that. Right. Where it had an extra little inner pocket. And like I said, we didn't ever feel unsafe, but it was just, you know, just kind of like maybe
00:56:42 SPEAKER_00
just, well, what's
00:56:43 SPEAKER_01
going on here? They're
00:56:44 SPEAKER_00
well known for their people who will walk up and, you know, they'll say, I bet you that I can tell you where you got those shoes on your feet and what time and date. And it's an old trick, you know, because obviously you have them on your feet right there at that moment. And you're in Louisiana and, you know, they'll try to bet you some money. But I told him, I said, I know where I've got my feet, they're right here with me. And so he's like, oh, that's an old, old joke or whatever. But then like Melissa said, then he wanted to be all buddy, buddy and hug up on me and stuff like that. So you just got to kind of know to, you know, move on. But overall, people were extremely friendly. What a great way to celebrate our 30th episode with a truly remarkable trip to New Orleans. I can still hear all of the jazz music playing in the background when I think about this place. What places stir up those kinds of memories in your head? We'd love to hear about them. Send us a message with that one place that you can see, smell, or hear in your head when you think about it. We're always inspired by your travel stories and adventures. We
00:57:49 SPEAKER_01
hope you enjoyed this episode and will find some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. Please consider going on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. The more five-star reviews we have, the more likely we are to be featured and discovered by others. Make sure to follow or subscribe to our podcast to be notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram as Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember that's travelers with one L. Most importantly, share it with your friends and help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
