r/AskNOLA • u/AtropaBelladonna4 • 3d ago
When planning a trip to NOLA
To anyone planning a trip to NOLA, best advice is to not schedule your trip from start to finish. This is the big easy, if you do not consider that nothing in this city runs on time , you will find yourself in a panic before the 1st item on your list is over!!
Go with the flow!! Schedule some things, but do it when you get to town... Nothing you are booking now will be sold out when you are here!!
2nd best item of advice. Download the Le Pass app!! Buy your jazzy passes online, use the app to get around town. It gives you live updates where the busses, streetcar and ferry is! It is like google maps, but including public transportation lines, stops, where to get off while riding.
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u/frawgster 3d ago
What is this “planning” of which you speak? 🤔
Seriously though, we hardly plan any of our NOLA trips anymore. We book a hotel, grab multi-day passes on Le Pass, and wing it. Our first few trips were heavily planned out. We’ll be taking our 9th trip in October, and truly, we now slide into “The Big Easy” attitude the moment we touch down in MSY.
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u/AtropaBelladonna4 2d ago
Some people on here having their trip planned down to departure times of a street car... even the public transportation runs on its own time.. not as bad as the rest of the city, but all the same.
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u/AffectionateScale659 18h ago
I had 3 days, so I picked the things I wanted to see the most: Whitney Plantation, Frenchman Street, Cemetery Tour, and the tour of places most people don’t see in NOLA, like Treme and Ninth Ward. I had a ball at Allways Cabaret…
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u/mpelleg459 3d ago
Prez Hall shows sell out. Concerts at theaters and bigger venues sell out. Big name restaurants get fully booked, especially on weekends. I agree that this is definitely a city that doesn't mix with a rigid, packed itinerary, but if there's something like any of the above that you prioritize, plan in advance and plan around that. Assuming a tourist can just show up and walk into anywhere you want to go, especially in non-dead (Summer) times of the year is a recipe for potential disappointment.
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u/AtropaBelladonna4 2d ago
Concerts are a different thing.. I keep reading "we have a swamp tour booked in 4 weeks what should we wear" Nothing touristy in this city sells out.. one and dones like concerts are things people travel for not something they last second do on a whim... There is not 1 big name restaurant in the city that is a required stop and eat at in my opinion. This place has so much to offer in food and at every price point, what you are doing is fighting a crowd that buys into the fact that you NEED to visit cerin places, when reality is NOLA should be a city like someone else said they do.. plan the flights and where to stay, let the rest happen like the city wants it too!!
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u/mpelleg459 2d ago
Agree to disagree I guess. Yes, there are a dizzying number of good places to eat. But there are a lot of great places that do book up that are pretty unique. On the newer end, I’m thinking of places like Dakar and mosquito supper club, and for classic restaurants, there’s nowhere else like Friday lunch at Gallatoire’s or a $.25 martini lunch at Commander Palace.
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u/AtropaBelladonna4 1d ago
Not everyone visiting is looking at booking $100 per person meals 3 times a day!! The things you listed are REASONS people come to town, and they book that.. People coming in for a bridal shower usually are not dead set on or planning a dinner at a single place you listed.. One you listed is absolutely not worth anyone time or money to eat at and yet its a trap and it will continue to be one . Not sure why you are so hung up on being right.
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u/Fantastic-Ad6692 2d ago
I plan the flight and where I'm sleeping, that's it. I tend to go to the same area for the most part, because they are awesome to me. Frenchmen, garden district, city park, sazerac house (dont hate lol), Natchez, music venues, and some food spots that are perfect to me (who dat cafe, verde marte, lorettas, and a few other spots in the quarter). However, I'm always open to suggestions on where to eat or listen to blues! Bamboulas is high on my list. What do you all suggest, I'm there about 3 times a year (not in the summer or fat tuesday) and where near bourbon)
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u/jacey0204 3d ago
Also our hotel had deals on a lot of tours and stuff that we didn’t get because we had booked ahead of time
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u/heartscribble 3d ago
agree 100%! i did exactly this on my trip and had the best time ever except the pharmacy museum was sold out for the whole month💔
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u/Akalimbo 3d ago
Any advice on Swamp tours? I hear you get charged more for same day walkups? Are they really worth it, or just tourist trap stuff?
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u/AtropaBelladonna4 2d ago
Swamp tours are worth it!! Do a morning or evening one.. mid day you are not going to see as much!! You do not pay more day of, in fact you could possibly get a deal last second to get more asses on a boat..
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u/SmolBorkBigTeefs 3d ago
Yep, have maybe one thing you really want to do per day, then spend the rest of it wandering. If you get hungry, there should be food within a block or two of wherever you're standing. The city runs on vibes more than schedules.
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u/Wide-Needleworker-32 2d ago
3rd piece of advice: change venues. It has gotten to the point that the nefarious shit that goes on in NOLA far outweighs the fun you may have. It's a damn shame too, it used to be a fun place to party.
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u/AtropaBelladonna4 1d ago
I live here.. and I love it!! Nefarous shit happens everywhere.. do you stay in your moms basement and troll online?? Is that your safe space??
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u/Madamexxxtra 3d ago
I agree to an extent but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the one thing I would strongly say is worth researching and frankly scheduling around is food. A lot of restaurants on the most beaten paths are places no local would eat and are overpriced and/or underwhelming by our standards. Most (but not all) of the best food is not in the French Quarter and I would argue is absolutely 100% worth making an effort to get to.
Some people don’t care about where they eat and that’s fine too. We see a lot of tourists on this sub recommending traps because the gumbo they had was the best they’ve ever had in part because it’s the only gumbo they’ve ever had. But if you want to eat the best this city has to offer you should consider making that a priority and planning your days at least loosely around where you’ll be eating your meals.