A few years ago, I stumbled into a video of a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. From that moment, this American city went straight onto my bucket list. The more I researched New Orleans, the more my willingness to go there grew. It seemed that it checked most of the boxes: New Orleans is an old city, has a rich history, seemingly great cuisine, a few bodies of water washing its shores, city streets breathing in jazz vibes. I was sure we wouldn’t go there during the Mardi Gras to avoid the craziness. So here we were – exploring New Orleans – in the middle of spring.
French Quarter
The French Quarter is unquestionably the most famous area in New Orleans. Not surprisingly, it’s constantly packed with tons of people walking around the perfectly planned street grid. In fact, getting lost there it’s basically impossible, no matter how highly intoxicated you would be.
We took a free walking tour to familiarize ourselves better with the history of the French Quarter. Our guide, Sandy, was cool, full of dark humor and self-irony. She explained that people can consume alcohol right on the street because, at any time, everything can go straight to hell. New Orleans was built on a swamp, and recurrent hurricanes destroy the shores. Thousands of square miles of land have already been washed away, and there’s no obvious solution for this environmental issue.
Although New Orleans was primarily built by the French, it was briefly under Spanish rule before being incorporated into the US territory after the Louisiana purchase in 1803. The Spanish influence in the French Quarter architecture is visible as well. The heart of the French Quarter is Jackson Square, with St. Louis Cathedral nearby. This cathedral is the oldest in continuous use in the US. Another building worth mentioning is the stately Convent of the Ursulines. This is the oldest building in Louisiana and Mississippi Valley, completed in 1753. The convent is open for guided tours.
Bourbon Street
If the square mentioned above is the heart of New Orleans, then Bourbon Street is the main artery of this city. The artery where alcohol flows instead of blood. Some people said it was a fun place, and I would love it. Some cautiously tried to warn me that it might get a bit too crazy for my taste. I went there with an open heart and eyes, and this is what I found there.
Within less than a mile, I found: puke on the sidewalks, the smell of urine and sewerage, roller skaters, kids playing improvised drums way past their bedtime, four giant pythons used for selfies, homeless people sleeping right on the sidewalk, overlapping music from different bars and clubs, tons of drunk people, and a group of religious fanatics preaching to drunk people on how Jesus will save us. I might have forgotten something, but I think you got a pretty detailed picture.
I understand why people love Bourbon Street, but I side with those who find it highly disappointing and overrated. Everything boils down to one’s priorities, and if your goal is to party wildly, this is the place to go.
Garden District
Many New Orleans travel guides advise tourists to leave the French Quarter and visit other neighborhoods, such as Garden District. One can go there in a trolley from Bourbon street (3 USD for a day pass or 1.25 USD for a single ticket).
Garden District is the opposite of the French Quarter. It’s quieter, with fewer people around, and clean and welcoming. Most importantly, the architecture, these historic mansions, make one’s jaw fall. Walking down a street was like window shopping for houses.
To dive deeper into the history of this part of New Orleans, one can also take a guided tour. We went there independently, but we came across a couple of guided groups and heard how guides told stories of a family that used to live in one of these stunning mansions. Moreover, the famous Lafayette Cemetery #1 is located in Garden District. Another place worth visiting with a guided tour or on your own.
Swamp Tour
Roughly 30 minutes West of New Orleans, billboards start to pop up, luring people to take a swamp tour with an airboat. We chose the company SWAMP DOCK which offered small and large boat tours, and we ended up in the smaller one, with nine tourists plus an experienced guide in total. The day was sunny but very windy. Combine these weather conditions with a high speed of an airboat, water splashing to your face, and you might end up shivering. Despite the light cold, we had so much fun. Most of us were smiling from ear to ear, except for one Karen, who, merely ten minutes after our departure, started to complain that she was cold. It was hard to understand her reasoning why she took this tour on a windy day wearing just a tank top.
The tour took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Our guide was born and raised there and knew these swamps like the back of his hand. Firstly, he took us to one location to look for some alligators. It didn’t take him too long to spot them, and this is when our guide started to throw marshmallows for gators. Apparently, throughout many years, these wild animals got addicted to sugar and now associated the noise of an airboat with a treat.
Listening to that guide, one could immediately tell how much he loved these animals. He even fed some of them straight from his hand. The guy explained why most gators’ attacks happen in Florida, not around New Orleans. If a person respects a wild animal, it most likely won’t attack. The highlight of this tour was when he explained to us about gators hatching and pulled Luis out of his pocket – a few-week-old baby gator. We were lucky enough to keep it gently in our arms. For all the PETA fans: this is how they try to increase the gators population because just a tiny percentage of all the hatched gators reach maturity.
Voodoo Tour
Ask yourself, what do you know or what have you heard about voodoo? Creepy puppets with needles in their bodies? Cult-like rituals, including animal blood and devil worship? After taking the Voodoo tour, I can say that Hollywood did a great job misleading the general public about what voodoo actually was. It was enough walking down the streets of New Orleans, mainly in the French Quarter, and seeing all these voodoo souvenirs somehow thrown in the same pot together with vampires, cemetery attributes, and pentagrams.
Our tour guide was a true voodoo priest. Briefly, voodoo is basically an ancient pagan African religion with its own particular rituals and numerous spirits. It has nothing to do with worshiping the devil or black magic. In fact, this misconception came from the slaveholders who didn’t care about enslaved people’s culture, and everything they couldn’t understand was simply simplified to a devil’s worshipping. In 2 hours long tour, our guide broke many myths, explained a lot of things, presented so many interesting facts, and even taught us one of their rituals.
Plantations
New Orleans is a part of the so-called deep south, where slavery flourished with all its brutality in the 1800s. Still-standing examples of this era are plantations that nowadays are open to the public. We went to the Oak Alley Plantation of sugarcane, but within a few miles of distance, there were another two – St. Joseph and Laura Plantations.
The entrance fee was 27 USD per person. It was a bizarre feeling walking around there. On the one hand, it was undeniably beautiful. On the other, once you realize at what costs that beauty was created, it leaves a bitter feeling in the heart.
Visitors can walk around the enslaved people’s quarters and extensive gardens. The interiors of the salve holder’s mansion could be visited just with a guided tour, and taking pictures inside was prohibited.
Food culture in New Orleans
Embrace yourself – this one is going to be the longest paragraph. To learn more about the food culture in New Orleans, we took a free food walking tour. The bottom line of the tour would be that cuisine in New Orleans was mainly influenced by French, Africans, and Native Americans with a less visible touch of later immigration waves, for instance, from Sicily.
Cajun vs. Creole
Signs are inviting you to try Creole or Cajun cuisine everywhere you go. Most of the time, both of these terms are used interchangeably. So what is the difference between Cajuns and Creoles? The main difference was that Creoles came to Louisiana from France, and Cajuns arrived from French Canada. These two groups didn’t mix together since Creoles felt like being the real French and looked down on the ones who came down from Canada. As a result, Cajuns used to live in more rural areas, more isolated themselves, meanwhile, Creoles stayed in urban places. In the cuisine, the main difference between these two groups is that Creoles typically use tomatoes in their food, and Cajuns don’t.
Restaurants in New Orleans
We started our gastronomic journey from the French market. This is where multiple traditional fast food places are located, and there we tried vegetarian muffuletta. This sandwich was created by Sicilian immigrants. Since we lived in Sicily for a while, we can affirm that that particular muffuletta took us back to the good old days near the Mediterranean sea. That was, without doubt, one of the best vegetarian sandwiches I’ve ever had. Definitely worth trying.
Then, we tasted a traditional New Orleans pastry called beignet. Many places serve them – sweet or savory – but we went to the two most famous ones: Cafe Beignet on Decatur street and Café Du Monde near the French market. Be ready to wait in a long line just to order beignets to go. They usually sell them in a pack of three, and it also pairs perfectly with a cold cafe au lait on a hot day. It is worth trying a beignet because it’s an unofficial ambassador of New Orleans. However, to be completely honest, I didn’t find it amazing. It’s simply a fried dough covered in powdered sugar. Many other desserts are more worth the calories.
I have mixed feelings about probably the most famous dining place in New Orleans – Antoine’s Restaurant. It is the oldest family-run restaurant in the US, established in 1840. Just this statement elevates Antoine’s restaurant above the others. It is also the birthplace of the well-known oysters Rockefeller – another reason to dine there as I am a big fan of seafood. Now about our impressions: the environment was fancy, service was excellent. After the dinner, we also got a short tour of the restaurant’s halls. But we all go to the restaurants not because of the interior. Food is essential. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found the food there just OK. The famous oysters disappointed me the most since I had much better ones in Montgomery.
One afternoon we had brunch in The Court of Two Sisters. For a 33 USD fee, guests could try multiple dishes from the buffet and listen to live jazz music. Keep in mind that the price doesn’t seem so high just because they additionally charge a lot for drinks. For saving some cash, you should stick with water. Of course, producing food for masses of people decreases its quality, but I liked their food anyway. This is where I tried jambalaya and could finally compare it with gumbo (I still prefer gumbo). Also, I tasted turtle soup and had delicious crawfish. The courtyard itself was terrific. Lush foliage covered the entire area and saved guests from direct sunlight.
The last place I would like to mention is Commander’s Palace in the Garden District. This is another boujee place with live jazz music. I ordered turtle soup, a dish that I would call a seafood lasagna, and a Creole cream cheesecake. The food was sublime, and I would have licked my fingers if I wouldn’t be constrained by etiquette.
Last remarks on food
If you feel adventurous, try frog legs or gator bites. For some reason, I was sure gator bites would be a tough meet to chew. Not at all! Its texture and color reminded me of chicken, and the taste wasn’t very intense. If I had eaten it blindfolded, I couldn’t tell that it was gator meat.
As for beignets, I would replace them with bread pudding. That stuff is fantastic! Po-boy is another famous sandwich next to muffuletta. New Orleans is also famous for its cocktail culture. Many bars offer craft drinks, and every visitor should try a daiquiri, Bloody Mary with Cajun spices, with an occasional shrimp on the side. Finally, Sazerac is the official drink of New Orleans, but was way too strong for me. In fact, there is a whole museum store dedicated to this drink. We went there, learned a few things, and got some free samples. The entrance is free of charge.
We booked our dinner in Antoine’s Restaurant and our brunches in The Court of Two Sisters and Commander’s Palace way in advance. There are no chances of simply swinging by and miraculously finding a free table. All these places have a dress code, but it didn’t seem that everyone followed it, except for Commander’s Palace. People there set the tone by dressing up elegantly.
The necessity to book a table in advance was perfectly illustrated by our failure to find a good place to eat on our last evening in New Orleans. We thought that we simply “go with the flow.” Long story short, we couldn’t get a table in any of the restaurants we wanted, ended up in a place with a bellow mediocre food, and on top of that still had to wait in a line for more than half an hour.
Things to do in New Orleans in a nutshell
On my first morning in New Orleans, while we were waiting in line for beignets, I saw a lady holding a Great Dane by her side. The dog’s size didn’t match how scared he looked. I heard the owner talking to a lady that her dog was freaking out because there were too many stimuli around him. At the end of this trip, I felt like that Great Dane.
New Orleans is a fun city, and there are many things to do, see, taste, and experience. However, it was just too much of everything at times, especially talking about the French Quarter and the famous Bourbon street. What I enjoyed the most were the swamp tour and New Orlean’s rich cuisine. After this trip, I determined to make gumbo at home!
Here’s a short recap of things to do in New Orleans:
French Quarter and Bourbon street
Garden district
Swamp tour
Voodoo tour
Plantations
Food food food!
