Our first priority upon arriving in New Orleans was of the personal hygiene variety. We’d been camping without showers for about 5 days and I’ll just say it was time to clean up our act. After moving in to the India House Hostel—our home away from Stan for the week—and some deep scrubbing, we set out to explore the city and start getting our bearings.

Typically our first order of business when we get to a new city or camp spot is to explore a bit and get a sense of the area, directions, and what’s where. We need to “get into the map” if you will. Friend’s fans, that one was for you. We had selected the India House Hostel because it’s right on the streetcar line so getting around was super easy.

We definitely recommend downloading the RTA app and buying daily (or longer) passes. We stayed in Mid-Town which was a bit too far of a walk from the French Quarter. Also, driving Stan around the French Quarter would most likely have resulted in some type of injury at the least. Narrow streets and wide vans don’t mix well. We were able to get everywhere we needed to go using the RTA services.

This was our first visit to New Orleans so we did all the usual things:

• Walked and gawked around the French Quarter
• Ooogled the gorgeous homes and landscapes in the Garden District
• Took over 500 pictures (yes, for real)
• Visited old cemeteries
• Ate beignets at Café Du Monde and inhaled too much powdered sugar
• Wandered around the sculpture garden in the 1300 acre City Park

It seems that everyone has their specific favorites in NOLA so we thought we’d share ours. Also, we want to say a huge “Thank You” to everyone who so generously gave us recommendations! I’m sure you’ll recognize a few of the items below:)

Neyow’s Creole Café in Mid-Town

Being it’s outside of the French Quarter this is more of a locals place. It was packed but we still got a table in 20 minutes. The service was great! The food was better! Grilled oysters, fried chicken, stuffed shrimp, fried catfish, hush puppies, mac and cheese, potato salad, cornbread stuffing—all of it was staggeringly tasty. Yes, we ate quite a bit.

The grilled oysters are a must if you eat here. Up until this point, I had yet to be an oyster fan, but now I can’t stop thinking about these oysters. They were the perfect size. No giant slimy monsters or skimpy sad little bites. They were drenched in a garlic butter sauce, seasoned perfectly. Topped with parmesan and then grilled to crispy perfection. Okay and that was my food porn paragraph of the article.

Napoleon House in the French Quarter

While we didn’t go for their famous muffuletta sandwich we can attest to the deliciousness of their shrimp po-boys, seafood gumbo, and boudin sausage. Well only Tom can attest to the sausage (that’s outside my pescatarian boundaries), but he’s pretty trustworthy when it comes to food recommendations.

Music and Nightlife on Frenchman Street

The key here is “nightlife”. Go there after 9pm and preferably after 10pm. We went twice earlier in the day during our visit (once mid-afternoon and once earlyish evening) and both times were a bust. It’s really not somewhere you want to be mid-afternoon. In the baking heat it just smells like regrets from the night before. Was that a nice way to put it? However, after 9 or 10 at night the street transforms into exactly what you want it to be. A core of great music, dancing, laughter, drinks, spontaneous parades, curb side concerts, late night eats, and a phenomenally good time.

Cajun Encounters Swamp Tour

One of the most memorable experiences in NOLA was the swamp tour. It started out typical enough. We were picked up at our hostel by a friendly and humorous bus driver and were given some interesting history and facts about the city as we drove out to the swamp.

Once on the boat we immediately saw our first gator. Apparently it’s a dock gator that lives by the boats. Makes it easy for the tour company to live up to their claim that you’ll get your “money back if you don’t see a gator”. Then we took off speeding away across the water to find more wildlife. We ended up seeing close to 20 alligators on the boat ride. Our captain had names for a dozen of them—things like Rocky, Stumpy, and Sue.

We also saw wild pigs at the back of the narrowest and most tree filled bayou we’d gone in. They were rummaging around in the mud for tasty treats. There were big pigs and baby pigs.
When we tried to leave and head back to the docks, the real fun began. Our boat battery was dead. The captain had been running the engine to clear the muck out and when he tried to start it? Nothing.

Fortunately for us there was still another tour boat there taking in the sights. The captains conferred and quickly decided that the only course of action was for the running boat to tow our lame boat. These really aren’t boats made for navigating tight spaces. They’re made to haul 22 tourists and a captain speedily around the river and maybe bump into some trees for fun in the bayous. When you put two of these boats together length-wise, you get a very unwieldy result.

We hit no less than 10 trees on our way. And I’m talking “Brace yourself! We’re gonna hit hard!” style hits. It was kind of like bumper cars (or boats) but without any bumpers. At one point our boat ramped up on to a stump sticking out of the water. There we were, precariously teetering over gator, and wild pig, oh yeah and snake infested waters.

This actually was the highlight of the tour for us and probably everyone on the boat. It’s not every day your boat breaks down in the middle of a bayou and you’re towed back to relative safety. Even some of the grouchier passengers cracked a smile and had a laugh during our rescue. We really got the tour that money can’t buy.

Although we can’t ensure that you’d have quite the same experience we had, we still highly recommend this tour. The bayous are unlike anything we’d ever seen. Tall, thin trees growing out of muddy water. Green leaved vines and moss hanging off of trees. Wildlife around every corner.

We found New Orleans to be a particularly special city. It’s a city that casts a spell on you over time. The longer you stay, the more hidden gems and surprises it reveals. New Orleans is a city that attracts people from all over the world and all walks of life. It has an aura all its own. New Orleans is at once energetic but leisurely. Friendly but guarded. Dirty but beautiful. Old but progressive. It’s definitely a city we’ll return to one day.

Does anyone have any NOLA adventures to share? Or favorite places to visit there? Any stories of things “going wrong” and turning out better because of it? Comment and let us know!

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