<p>My daughters and I have decided that this year’s upcoming college graduation will be celebrated with a trip to New Orleans early June 2012. So I’m opening the door to any and all recommedations, suggestions, comments, etc. </p>
<p>I’d love to hear all of your “dont misses” and “dont go theres”! We are especially interested in food/cooking, architecture, music, and of course the scary stuff (cemetaries, haunted tours, etc).</p>
<p>“Laissez les bons temps rouler”!</p>
<p>Welcome to our fair city! It won’t be too hot, I hope, in June. Any later will be brutal.</p>
<p>Check out the Tulane forum for suggestions/recommendations, from out of towners.</p>
<p>I will be happy to help you out with any suggestions/warnings, from a local’s viewpoint.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions as well, please feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I travel all over the city in my work, and if you have a specific hotel you have an eye on, I will be happy to let you know if it’s in a safe neighborhood. It is very hard to judge location on the internet, and I always am quick to warn visitors what areas to stay away from.</p>
<p>As for food, bring “fat pants”. You will be eating a lot while you’re here! But it’s worth it!</p>
<p>The Pitot House is the oldest building in the city that you can reliably go on a tour of. It was built in what must have been the countryside at the time (Bayou St. John) and is near City Park which you may also want to tour. The art museum has a lovely outdoor sculpture garden in City Park.</p>
<p>[Louisiana</a> Landmarks Society | Pitot House](<a href=“http://www.pitothouse.org/]Louisiana”>http://www.pitothouse.org/)</p>
<p>Madame John’s Legacy is the oldest house in the city, but it is usually not open for any kind of tour.</p>
<p>[Louisiana</a> State Museum Madame John’s Legacy](<a href=“http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/madam.htm]Louisiana”>http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/madam.htm)</p>
<p>Cemeteries are worth a tour in New Orleans too. St. Louis cemetery #1 is the oldest, and is delightfully decrepit. The neighborhood is iffy so be careful, go during the day, or go with a larger tour group. There is a segregated section near the back — for the Protestants. I believe Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the US Capitol, is buried there (one of many who died of yellow fever).</p>
<p>[Saint</a> Louis Cemetery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Louis_Cemetery]Saint”>Saint Louis Cemetery - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Another good cemetery is Lafayette. It’s in the Garden District, directly across the street from Commander’s Palace restaurant. Have lunch, they may still have 25 cent margaritas, and then stroll through the necropolis. What could be better? It’s an easy walk from the streetcar and the dress code is less stringent for lunch. No jacket or tie needed although you still can’t wear shorts, sneakers, or jeans. </p>
<p><a href=“http://lafayettecemetery.org/[/url]”>http://lafayettecemetery.org/</a></p>
<p>Just a few music suggestions…</p>
<p>[New</a> Orleans Jazz](<a href=“http://snugjazz.com/site/]New”>Sitemap - Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro)</p>
<p>[Tipitina’s</a> - New Orleans, Louisiana](<a href=“http://www.tipitinas.com/]Tipitina’s”>http://www.tipitinas.com/)</p>
<p>[Rock</a> ‘n’ Bowl](<a href=“http://www.rocknbowl.com/]Rock”>http://www.rocknbowl.com/)</p>
<p>[The</a> Howlin’ Wolf ? New Orleans’ Premier Music Venue](<a href=“http://www.thehowlinwolf.com/]The”>http://www.thehowlinwolf.com/)</p>
<p>[Maple</a> Leaf Bar New Orleans](<a href=“http://mapleleafbar.com/]Maple”>http://mapleleafbar.com/)</p>
<p>Do not fail to have cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde across from Jackson Square in the Quarter–at least once a day 
Make sure you get the coffee in the heavy white china mugs–no icky take-out cups!</p>
<p>^^ and if you go there, wander to the back of the place (along the river side) and peek in the “sugar window”. Everything is covered in powdered sugar. Just covered!</p>
<p>St. Louis Cemetary 3 is on Esplanade Avenue, near Bayou St. John. The Pitot House is along Bayou St. John, on Moss St. Nearby also is a great poboy place, Parkway Bakery, where I treated another Bama mom to lunch of a shrimp poboy, roast beef poboy, split between the two of us, and cold bottles of Barqs. Nothing better. Across the street from St. Louis Cemetary 3 is City Park, and the Museum of Art. Also on Esplanade is a wonderful bar that makes the best hamburgers, Port O Call. There are also good music clubs on Esplanade. Esplanade borders the Quarter, near the French Market, but it is a long way from the Quarter to Bayou St. John, so you’d have to take a taxi. The street car does run close to City Park, though, if you want to take it that far and walk to the cemetary, but it’s not a good walk to the Pitot House or Parkway Bakery. You may want to rent a car for a trip to that area of the city, or perhaps use public transportation, then take a cab. A word of caution, though. Although New Orleans is a city, there are not cabs readily available. Put a cab company’s number in your phone, make friends with a cab driver that you can count on to pick you up and bring you places. There will be cabs lined up outside major hotels, but you can’t just stand in the street and wave down a cab, like you can in larger cities.</p>
<p>Just got a rec from an OOS friend who reminded me that the Napoleon House is a great place to eat and have cocktails. Haven’t been in a while, but I remember liking it as well. Nice historic, very New Orleans, atmosphere.</p>
<p>Lots of great recommendations for things to do, places to see and places to eat ont eh Tulane forum. I’d recommend you read some of the threads over there.
We had a great time on the Segway tour. [Segway</a> New Orleans Historic Guided Tours | Segway Tour Sales New Orleans](<a href=“segwaynola.com”>segwaynola.com) Lots of fun and great way to see the city!!</p>
<p>No one has mentioned the French Quarter?</p>
<p>Love, love all the little shops on Magazine street towards the Garden District. There’s a trolley from the French Quarter down St Charles. Take a round-trip ride just to admire the beautiful old houses in the Garden District (my sister lives in one of them :-).</p>
<p>^^^Lucky lady! My favorite thing to do in New Orleans is hop on the street car and ride it from one end to the other, looking at the beautiful homes and oak trees along St. Charles Avenue.</p>
<p>The Segway tours start in and cover much of the French Quarter, as well as other nearby areas (Treme, etc)</p>
<p>Does the National Park Service still offer a free walking tour of the city & the Garden District (along with the cemetary near Commander’s Palace)? I did it 18 years ago and still found it lots of fun and interesting. </p>
<p>We also did a riverboat cruise. </p>
<p>Clearly plan your eating, as there is so much you need to pace yourself - mufalatas, po-boys, red beans & rice, etc…yum. </p>
<p>It is my favorite city in the US!</p>
<p>If I was in New Orleans right now I would be sitting in Cafe du Monde - and in heaven.</p>
<p>brunch: [Commander’s</a> Palace - Brunch](<a href=“http://www.commanderspalace.com/menu/brunch/]Commander’s”>http://www.commanderspalace.com/menu/brunch/)</p>
<p>dinner: [Galatoires</a> Restaurant New Orleans, Louisiana](<a href=“http://www.galatoires.com/index.html]Galatoires”>Galatoire's Restaurant New Orleans)</p>
<p>Please do not diet in New Orleans</p>
<p>I like the garden district</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (9780061136641): Julia Reed: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/House-First-Street-Orleans-Story/dp/0061136646]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/House-First-Street-Orleans-Story/dp/0061136646)</p>
<p>Anne Rice’s characters restore one of these houses in The Witching Hour She did one in real life.</p>
<p>Wow- thanks! Great suggestions and guidance, keep it coming! Any recommendations on hotels? And which tour companies are reputable? Know of any cooking classes?</p>
<p>Check out these links for free things (they do still offer the daily walking tour of downtown; looks like the one in the Garden district is done. That was fun, because they pointed out some cool wrought-iron fences)</p>
<p>[New</a> Orleans Jazz National Historical Park - Things To Do (U.S. National Park Service)](<a href=“http://www.nps.gov/jazz/planyourvisit/things2do.htm]New”>Things To Do - New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service))</p>
<p>[Jean</a> Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve - French Quarter Visitor Center (U.S. National Park Service)](<a href=“http://www.nps.gov/jela/french-quarter-site.htm]Jean”>http://www.nps.gov/jela/french-quarter-site.htm)</p>
<p>Last time we were there, we stayed in the warehouse district between the river and downtown. We liked it a lot more than the touristy French Quarter, and it was cheaper, too. Easy walking or trolley rides to the French Quarter and the Garden District. And there were lots of serious art galleries and music clubs. We were across the street from Howlin Wolf (someone posted the link above). We went to a show there, left at 2 am, and when we left our hotel to go to the airport at 6 am the show was still going on!</p>
<p>New Orleans is heaven if you like music. There are all kinds there, and the quality of street buskers is amazing. But if you have any interest I would urge you to educate yourself a little in advance about New Orleans brass bands. It’s really a genre that’s unique to New Orleans, and unlike Dixieland jazz (which is undeniably great there), it’s a vibrant, living, evolving popular music form. And really exciting. My wife kind of relies on me to find stuff like this, and feels free to express her opinions up or down afterwards, and she says that a ReBirth Brass Band show I dragged her to in New Orleans was one of the best, most exciting shows she had been to in her life. </p>
<p>A typical brass band consists of 8-9 musicians, always a snare drum, bass drum, and tuba, and then some mixture of trumpets, trombones, and/or saxophones. The music is highly rhythmic dance music that shades into Dixieland at one end and hip-hop at the other, with a lot of soul in between. There is often some vocal element, singing or rapping – and if so, like lots of hip-hop, it may sometimes be R-rated. Gold-standard names in the genre include the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, ReBirth Brass Band, The Hot 8, Treme Brass Band. Most New Orleans-based brass solo artists (like Kermit Ruffins, Trombone Shorty, and once upon a time Louis Armstrong) got their start in the brass band world.</p>
<p>With a little bit of digging, you can hear brass bands almost anytime around New Orleans. There used to be a club called Donna’s that had several brass band nights/week, but that closed recently. ReBirth has a standing gig at the Maple Leaf, and other bands play there. Howlin Wolf also books name-brand bands. And sometimes they just play on the street in the French Quarter for tips, especially if they are young and hungry.</p>
<p>Anyway, go listen to a brass band . . . and get a muffaletta at the Central Grocery. (Two or more people can split one.)</p>
<p>^^ good advice</p>
<p>Maybe watch Treme before you go, if you haven’t already.</p>