What To Do
New Orleans has many different things to do and honestly I would suggest going for longer than 72 hours, but if that’s all the time you have, here’s what we did.
We woke up early and drove down Friday November 17th, 2017. It’s about a 7-8 hour drive depending on traffic from Atlanta, GA, but is way cheaper than buying a plane ticket (unless you find a good deal). Once we got to NO we checked in at the Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans Conference Center linked here. Because I am a Hilton rewards member I got points.
One thing I wish I knew before arriving was that it costs $50 a day to park at the hotel and is valet parking. This was common among most hotels near the Mercedes Benz Superdome, the French Market, and Downtown New Orleans. We chose this hotel because it was within walking distance to all of the places we wanted to go, which was nice because then we didn’t have to drive and find parking or get an Uber, so we saved money there.
The first night we got ready and headed down to Downtown New Orleans to find somewhere to eat. We found this cute little restaurant that had a terrace outside and we got to sit there and watch the night life. While we were eating dinner we saw a wedding. This was no ordinary wedding either! There was a parade and a band and everything and it was so much fun watching everyone march down the streets of downtown New Orleans.
The next day we went exploring! We walked to the French Market for breakfast and stopped at Cafe Du Monde for Beignets and french style coffee. It was amazing!! The line was long but moved fast.
Then we continued our journey to the French Market and saw many art vendors along the streets, musicians, story teller, magicians and the market itself. We bought some souvenirs, ate a creole styled lunch and drank some amazing homemade lemonade from one of the vendors.
We walked around most of the day just exploring and it was so amazing. We saw the St. Louis Cathedral, but we were not able to go in because there was another wedding. That is the picture at the top of this post! If you get the chance to go to New Orleans I would highly suggest going inside the Cathedral, that is one thing we will be doing the next time we are there.
After a long day of walking around, exploring, shopping and eating, we headed back to our hotel to rest before we went back out for dinner and more exploring that night.
We found a burger place in food court right across from the hotel we were staying in and it was so good. The food court was right on the river and was so beautiful at night.
It was during November, so the town had Christmas lights up and it was beautiful! It also wasn’t very hot so I highly recommend going during this time of year.
Sunday, we got geared up and walked to the Mercedes Benz Superdome to watch the New Orleans Saints play the Washington Redskins. Being close to the dome was nice, again because we saved money not using uber or lyft and we didn’t have to drive ourselves.
We got to the dome early to walk around and see everything and to stop into the gift shops to buy some merch. The Saints ended up winning the game and it was such an amazing experience. Once the game was over we walked back with tons of happy Saints fans, stopped and bought pizza on the side of the road from this little pizza place and it was some of the best pizza we’ve had and kept moving to the hotel. We relaxed most of the day after that until we got ready to go back out to eat for our last night. We headed home Monday!
When To Go: During the cooler months since NO is right on the river and in the South. November seemed to be the perfect time!
Where To Stay: We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans Convention Center - It was a close walk to everything!
What To Wear: If you’re traveling during November, I would pack an option for a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt, a light jacket, jeans or long pants, a warmer jacket for the evenings and comfortable shoes because you will be doing a lot of walking!
What To Pack: Other than your clothes and toiletry items, I would pack a phone charger pack to keep with you and for the ladies I would suggest using a backpack purse that is anti-theft or a super cute fanny pack. Although the people of New Orleans are so nice, there is always so many people and pit-picketers exist. So be smart about your belongings. I would also pack a raincoat and umbrella just in case!
Booking Process & Money Saving Tips:
I booked our hotel and bought our tickets to the game in July. They were cheaper and It gave me time to save up for the rest of the trip.
Start saving NOW! Put extra money aside when you can to plan and prepare for the trip. I estimated about $1,000 total for the entire trip, including hotel, tickets for the game, food & shopping.
Bring your own case of water and snacks to save money on those sort of things when you get snacky or thirsty.
Stay close enough to everything so you can walk, if you can, and that will save money on using Uber or Lyft.
Don’t stay in the heart of everything. These hotel prices are sometimes double what a hotel a few blocks down may be.
Use cash when shopping at the French Market, this way you’re not tempted to overspend on things you may not need.
Sometimes Groupon has deals on hotel packages for certain “off season” weekends, so always check there!
I hope you find your way to New Orleans and experience the magic of that city. We will definitely be going back one day! There is still so much more to do and experience, but I hope you can experience it too! Happy traveling!
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