New Orleans and Mardi Gras

Taking a trip down south to Louisiana for Mardi Gras isn’t for the faint of heart! Fair warning, this was a pretty expensive trip because of the time of year. I’m guessing New Orleans is actually a great low-budget spot when it’s “off season”.

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Mardi Gras Weekend

Saturday

We got to New Orleans on the Saturday night before Mardi Gras. If you didn’t know, Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. To be honest, we didn’t know what to expect, but let me tell you, I have never seen such a long line for Ubers and Taxis. We had an Ubers accept and cancel our trip at least 4 times before one finally came. It was about $75 to get to our hotel in the French Quarter. There weren’t any other options and it was insane downtown with parades and street closures, so I shouldn’t have been surprised at those prices.

By the time we got to our hotel, we were both completely exhausted. So much so that we didn’t even go get food anywhere we just went to sleep. We stayed at New Hampton Inn and Suites, which was about a 5 minute walk to Bourbon Street.

Sunday

We got up and walked around pretty early the first day because we wanted to see what was going on around the area. When we got to Bourbon street there was the world’s smallest parade where we got about 10 beads each. No joke it was like 2 floats. Our expectations were very… unsure after that “parade”. We didn’t need to worry though. There were plenty of other parades and they were much more of what we thought we’d see. After walking around the French Quarter, down the Riverwalk, and back, we ended up at the hotel to nap before a night out. Of course, we had to get beignets at Cafe du Monde first. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed with after the ones we’d had a Disney last year.

We decided to just walk back down Bourbon to see what was going on at night, and pretty quickly found a bar called Bourbon Street Drinkery. (Note: The website doesn’t seem to be super up to date). This was one place we ended up frequenting all week. It had the beers we wanted, and it was close to home. Plus, they had live music every night.

Night life on Bourbon was pretty insane. People were on balconies all over the place throwing beads to people. Some required a peak, but most people just threw them to those who wanted them. There were people on the streets glittering people’s nipples and people were in some really crazy costumes. Note: we did have a few scares with people with guns in the area. Apparently this is common, especially around Mardi Gras. The locals seemed completely unfazed.

Monday

We slept most of the morning on Monday, but got up to have hotel breakfast. By the afternoon, we decided to walk to the SmoothieKing Center and the Superdome to check things out. We grabbed beignets at a different place called Cafe Beignet and took the mile or so walk over. Unfortunately they don’t do tours, so we just went into the different shops they had open. After that we had lunch at a Popeye’s and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

Lundi Gras (Fat Monday) is also celebrated in the city, so we had to take part. We ended up finding a bar with dancing and more live music further down Bourbon Street. We had such a good time, and were out until at least 2 am. Sorry, but I can’t remember the name!

Tuesday

To be honest, Tuesday night was not a much fun as Monday. At some point we did find a small bar that had live jazz music going on. This was really cool to see and one of the things we really wanted to do while there. We caught the end of their set, and ironically, the jazz band that played on the Riverboat later in the week had the same clarinetist/singer.

We did see quite a few more parades and got a lot more beads, but otherwise, we ended up back in our usual spot, The Drinkery. There was live music there every night, so it really was a good spot to be in.

Outside the Party and Mardi Gras

See the Mighty Mississippi

Take a riverboat tour on the Mississippi River! The Riverboat Natchez is one of the only still functioning riverboats in New Orleans. It was really cool to take a ride on it. There is an option on this boat to have a lunch or dinner, but we decided to skip it. They sell drinks and snacks aboard as well. It was about a 2 hour tour. There was someone on a speaker giving facts and history about the river, New Orleans, and how things have changed over the years. Plus, they had a jazz band playing intermittently! I would highly recommend this tour and make sure you book it in advance.

We grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe afterwards where they served Po Boys and Gumbo, Gumbo Ya-Ya. We got an alligator po boy and the seafood gumbo to share. Neither of us had eaten either before, but wow they were good! I could go for some right now, in fact! From the cafe, we walked around the French Quarter a bit, found some cool shops and ended up at the VooDoo Museum.

If I remember correctly it was like $10 each to go inside. It is a small space, but there is quite a bit in there! It is interesting how VooDoo has become a seemingly evil practice, when it is really similar to any other religion. Of course in the shops around the French Quarter you can find VooDoo dolls and shrunken heads, etc. But the museum gives you more of the history on it. I would recommend it if it’s something you are interested in.

Get out of the City and see Louisiana

Take a tour of a nearby bayou and Plantation home – this specific tour is the one we went on. I would recommend seeing some of the other plantations in the area. Oak Alley Plantation is gorgeous and has a lot of history, but it wasn’t what I was hoping to see at a place like that. I wanted more history, less instagramable beauty.

The bayou tour was great! Cajun Swamp Tours really know what they’re doing. I would honestly go again if I was in the area. Note: There were tons of bees in the area before getting onto the boat. If you are allergic, be careful and be sure to have an epipen. Anyways, the tour guide actually lives in the Bayou, which made me feel safer and like he really knew what he was talking about. It was hard to understand his Cajun accent at times, though. There were alligators, raccoons, wild pigs, and snakes that could be seen depending on the time of year and what was going on.

Explore the Garden District

We walked over to the Garden District one day to get away from the craziness of Bourbon. It was such a lovely area to walk around, with massive old homes with the French influenced architecture. It is a ways off the beaten path, but you can always figure out the bus or call an Uber. We walked to the neighborhood and Ubered back to our hotel. Not before grabbing a drink at The Chickory House in The Rink Shopping Center though!