Our finances are very limited, but we enjoy travel. When my friend, Jean, and I decided a trip to New Orleans was in order, we stayed within budget ($475 per person) but still got to do everything on our “New Orleans Bucket List”.
We found out the Amtrak train “City of New Orleans” (made famous in the 1972 Arlo Guthrie song) made a stop in Kentucky. We traveled the 3rd week of October. Weather was perfect, costs were low and nothing was over-crowded but crowded enough. Cost for the round trip: $175 per person. No gas cost and stress free (vs. a navigator and traffic and cramming 2 people and luggage in the back seat of a car).
We booked 2 rooms at The Creole Gardens Guesthouse, a mansion in the Garden District which was built in 1849. The guest rooms are in servant’s quarters.
It’s eclectic, bohemian…. just our style! Cost per person: $148.50 for 4 nights including breakfast.
We splurged and made dinner reservations at Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico (just around the corner from the Creole Gardens), one of my “New Orleans Bucket List” to-do’s. Cost: $50 per person including awesome entrée, beverage, scrumptious dessert and tip.
We each got a different dessert, took a bite and rotated to the left so we could all taste each fabulous one.
Each morning, we would meet in the court before breakfast. Every time I stepped out of my room, I would smile. This place just made me smile!!! It is so colourful; so happy.
Barbara and Miss Barbara (her mother) prepared all of the breakfasts (which were included in the cost of the rooms). Barbara was always singing and dancing to Motown.The Barbaras cook hot, delicious breakfast …made to order.
We walked to St. Charles Avenue (around the corner) and caught the trolley (streetcar). Trolley cost $1.25 each trip or $3 for the day (until 4 am).
The St. Charles is the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world (operational for over 150 years). Mahogany seats that have backs that slide from one end to the other (so you can sit facing the other direction when the trolley goes back), brass fittings and exposed, flickering ceiling light bulbs. Very loud, the trolley rumbles along….bong bong bong then a loud clank and sparks would fly out from underneath. Then everything would go dead silent and the lights would go out for a few minutes. I actually thought the thing stopped dead, but it didn’t.
We swayed along, going through a tunnel of Live Oaks, and past antebellum mansions. We got off at Canal, right at the entrance to Bourbon Street.
All of the doors were flung open so you would walk past and catch glimpses of the inside of the shops, hear the music and conversations, barkers calling, smell the smells. All of the senses were wildly active! Tin ceilings, arched windows, street names made of white ceramic tile with blue letters embedded in concrete on each street corner. Mardi Gras beads were everywhere.
We stopped at the Musical Legends Park and listened to the live music while admiring the statues of greats like Al Hirt and Fats Domino. Great ambiance. Cost: Free
Many of the storefronts and bars have courts at the back. Seating, music, smoking and drinking. We spent a few breaks in the courts…. I got a New Orleans Bloody Mary which is quite different from a Bloody Mary in Savannah. It’s brown in colour and has pickled green beans and jalapenos in it. Spicy. Good, very good. But it was too spicy for my stomach to handle ☹ I swapped Jean for her drink: Jameson and ginger ale. Can’t finish your cocktail quickly? No worries; take it with you. It’s legal to walk down Bourbon Street with a drink in hand. Cost: $8.
There are street performers aplenty… Cost: Free (unless you feel kind enough to make a donation).
A “must” on our list was a visit to Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo (the most famous voodoo shop). We also stopped in at Reverend Zombie’s Voodoo Shop and a number of souvenir shops and bars.
We walked to the French Market district, stopping in the shops along Decatur and along French Market Place. We went to the Farmer’s Market and Flea Market and browsed through the stalls. We ate Crab Cakes and Apple Beignets at a lunch counter, Mother Nature’s Cupboard. Behind the counter was a wall of jars… strange things in the jars! The proprietor, Gene Murphy, was a delight and the food was fabulous. Cost: $5 (we shared)
Of course, we went to Café du Monde for coffee and beignets. OMG! They are wonderful! A street musician was playing the saxaphone, and there were tons of people. The energy is awesome.
We each enjoyed a cup of their famous coffee and 3 wonderful beignets. Cost: $3.50 per person.
We took a stroll along the Mississippi River. A paddle boat played music that sounded like calliope. We sat on a bench and just enjoyed the view, the freighters, tug boats and paddle boats. Cost: Free
Next stop, the Clover Grill for lunch. The food was good; the menu funny. (Under menu descriptions would be personal comments like “If you’re not served in 5 minutes, relax, it may be another 5. This is not New York City”. Cost: $6.30 each.
One street was blocked off. We soon found out that they were filming NCIS New Orleans. What an unexpected treat! We stood and watched for quite a while. There were 3 actors, navy dress blues, crossing the street over and over. They acted as if they were jumping a puddle. Later, they set off an explosion so I’m guessing they merged the 2 pieces of film together to look like the explosion made them leap away from it.
We took the trolley farther into the Garden District for a tour of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, one of the oldest cemeteries in the city. It was built on an old sugar plantation. Pat, our tour guide from Save Our Cemeteries did an amazing job for only $15 per person. The money goes towards preserving the cemeteries so I always recommend them for tours.
Tombs are above ground (because the city is built on a swamp) and are shared by the family. The cemetery resembles a small village with all of it’s above ground monuments and tombs, so has the nickname “City of the Dead.”
The “Secret Garden” is a square of four tombs built by friends, “the Quarto,” who held secret meetings and wished to be buried together. It was the tomb of Lestat in the 1994 movie “Interview with a Vampire” (Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise) and all of the cemetery scenes in the movie were filmed here. Another movie that was filmed here was “Double Jeopardy” (1999) with Ashley Judd.
There are tours of the homes available, but since we opted to splurge on good eating, we did the tour ourselves. You can find all you need on the internet to create your own walking tour at sites like New Orleans Garden District.
We walked up Coliseum Street and passed Sandra Bullock’s, John Goodman’s and the “Benjamin Button” house. Nicholas Cage also lives here and at First and Chestnut, we saw Ann Rice’s house, the inspiration for Mayfair Manor, the home of the Mayfair Witches in her book “The Witching Hour”. Cost: Free
The boys went on to the Central Business District and the National WWII Museum while Jean and I went back to Bourbon Street. Admission to WWII Museum: $23 per person.
We had dinner at the Irish House which is just around the corner from the Creole Gardens. The chef at the Irish House is Chef Matt Murphy, who won his episode of Chopped in 2012 and has many other accomplishments in the culinary world. The food was so good, we understand why he won! Cost: $20.01 per person for entrées, dessert, beverages and tip.
Luckily, we were walking back to creole gardens so were able to walk off some of the food. The courts were lit by party lights. We sat in the courtyard, talking about the day.
Time to go home. It was a spectacular, satisfying trip. … LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER, CHER!
What did we miss? What do you have on your New Orleans Bucket List? We’d love to hear from you.
Don’t think you can afford to travel? Read how we do it in our post “Traveling on a Budget“.
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