I focused the majority of 2019 making local trips and visiting other states in order to save for a very special trip in November. New Orleans was a city that I had been meaning to visit for years, and especially after watching vivid scenes from the movie Girls Trip.
In February, one of my girlfriends decided she wanted to go to New Orleans for her 30th birthday in early June, and there was no better time to go! Our travel group originally consisted of six women, but naturally because life happens, over time our group dwindled down to three women. Prior to our big day, we discussed the activities that the birthday girl wanted to do, as well as activities me and my other friend wanted to do. We only had three full days in NOLA, but we figured this would be enough time for us to discover the essence of the city.
We took a direct, easy-going Frontier flight from Philadelphia. I will definitely be writing an easy guide on how to travel on a cheap Spirit/Frontier flight. When we arrived to our Aloft hotel, we were greeted by the warm southern hospitality of the hotel staff. Since we had an extra early flight, we decided to have some brunch at the Ruby Slipper. Boy, this place did not disappoint! The portions were hefty for the price and they had a diverse range of cocktails. I ended up having a fruity stuffed French toast with a very strong southern cocktail.
It was a rainy morning, but during the afternoon, the sky cleared up and the sun really came out! We walked to the waterfront near the Audubon Aquarium to view the famous Mississippi River. We also ended up finding the NOLA sign to use as a photographic backdrop.
It was a great opportunity to watch the steamboats pass by, and if you live on the east coast, you don’t really get the chance to see these kinds of boats.
Like many touristy hotels we were not far from the the French Quarter. The architecture and vibe of this area was absolutely gorgeous. It has an old town vibe with historical elements. Some of the storefront lamps used flames instead of a small bulb.
The cultural influence was also very apparent in the design of the city. Some of the buildings reminded me of the building designs from Cartagena, and I also felt some familiar French vibes throughout the streets.
We also ran into several art museums that represented the vibrancy of the city. As the evening crept upon us, we approached the famous Bourbon Street! Along the way, we had multiple people pin money to my friends birthday sash, which we later found out is a traditional activity in New Orleans.
Bourbon street is a party with live bands playing at every corner! The street is filled with countless amounts of bars. There were also some annoying shot bar workers trying to lore us into buying overpriced watered down shots. Do not be fooled. However, the girls look beautiful so feel free to compliment their makeup skills and hair. But just walk away afterwards. There are also lots of sugary alcoholic beverages for $10, like the grenade. But if sugary alcoholic drinks are your thing, Bourbon street is perfect.
Food
After summarizing the first full day in New Orleans, it’s better to describe the rest of the trip in different categories.
Let me start off by mentioning the food in NOLA. I am a vegetarian, but during that weekend, I couldn’t leave without trying their crawfish and oysters. So I was a pescatarian for the weekend. I grew up on southern cooking, but most African American east coasters grew up on foods from the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia. Poultry is a common meat used in the south east, but Louisiana had a whole different range of southern food! Bivalves, shellfish, and pork were their common proteins. Their food was also Cajun or Creole influenced, which consisted of a unique blend of spices that I have only tried through a box of Zatarain’s.
Our first dinner spot was at a well-renounced restaurant named Acme Oyster House. This restaurant is known for their charbroiled oysters. Man, did this place live up to the hype! I ordered that and some fried oysters and shrimp.
The charbroiled oysters were well seasoned and tasted like nothing I’ve tasted before.
The brunch/breakfast places were very reasonable and delicious. I stuck with eggs Benedict on most days, and I pretty much never skimped out on a good biscuit and cheese grits.
Did I try a beignet? Of course I did! We tried them at the Cafe Beignet. This was my first time trying a beignet and it pretty much reminded me of a large clump of funnel cake. I thought it was pretty tasty! You can’t go to New Orleans without trying a beignet!
I also tried crayfish for the first time! We traveled to the French Market, which was a very interesting experience to say the least. At the time, the French Market was celebrating their Creole Tomato Festival.
The market had plenty of food vendors to choose from. We were also able to see how the crayfish was cooked.
In all honesty, eating crayfish from the shell wasn’t my thing. It seemed like I had to put in a lot of work just to eat a small piece of meat. But I did love the fried crayfish tails. Much easier for me to eat.
Activities
We ended up taking part in a graveyard ghost tour. Folks, just skip this. I felt that this tour was really disrespectful to people’s late loved ones. A bus dropped us off at different grave yards and told us to take pictures of the dark. If we saw different colored lights in our photos, then we were in the presence of a ghost. The last part of the tour included walking in the woods with a “ghost detector”. Again, just skip this tour.
The Alligator Swamp Tour was by far the best activity. The tour took place on a small but gated boat, which held about 20-30 passengers. In the beginning, we were bombarded by flies and bees, but once the boat was in the swamp, we were pretty much in the clear. Our tour guide tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible, by telling our group a bunch of jokes in between some interesting facts about the swamp and about alligators.
Luckily we were able to see several large alligators swim by the boat. At the end of the tour, our tour guide passed around a small and adorable baby alligator which we all took turns holding.
We did have the chance to have an awesome girls night out at a bar that was away from the touristy area called the Devil’s Den. The drinks were served in clear plastic cups, and the music genres were split into two floors. The first floor played old school hip hop and rnb, while the upstairs played newer hip hop and bounce music. It had a very relaxed vibe even though it was packed. And it was very black which was a major plus! This was the best bar I went to during our trip. We met some cool people and danced most of the night. I didn’t get that same experience at most of the bars on Bourbon Street. And this isn’t to say that I did not have a great time visiting the bars in the touristy areas, but this bar felt more authentic. I felt like I could let my hair down and it wasn’t gimmicky at all.
We planned a day trip to the Louis Armstrong Park located in the Tremé neighborhood, and if you are interested in learning about some important pieces of black history, especially a vital piece of history that is often ignored, please visit this park. Within this park lies Congo Square, which was an area where black slaves congregated every Sunday to play music, dance, sing and sell homemade goods. This park is also known as the birth place of some major elements to modern music, especially jazz music. Today the park maintains the history of Congo Square and Louis Armstrong. This park is so beautiful! The flora is well maintained and the statues are alluring yet very meaningful. We also utilized the trolly to get to the park, which was a really unique experience due to the fact that the interior structure still holds so much history.
We went to New Orleans during Pride month, which made our trip particularly special! We were even able to go to their Pride Parade, and it was my first time ever attending one.
New Orleans was amazing! My friend had a wonderful birthday. If you ever want to celebrate on a budget, I do recommend going to NOLA. Between the Ubers, the food, and the flight, we ended up spending just under $1000. Definitely try it if you like to do an array of different activities. It’s so much more than a party city. It’s a city with deeply rooted history, culture, cuisine, and new discoveries.