New Orleans Family Trip

Our Local Expert Says:

One of the best things about Royal Street is that some blocks are closed to traffic and talented performers entertain you as you window shop. The Spanish and French architecture is beautiful, and Royal Street is the perfect place for a stroll – day or night.

Description:

Royal Street in the French Quarter is the perfect place to go for window shopping and a daytime stroll. On this beautiful and historic street, visitors will find art, antiques, specialty shops, and restaurants, as well as dozens of street performers. On any given day you might hear a jazz ensemble, bluegrass group, brass band, or just a boy and his guitar. Magicians, tap dancers, saxophone players, and men in head-to-toe metallic costumes are also common sights. The art galleries are breathtaking, and the street boasts some of the best restaurants in the city, such as Brennan's and The Court of Two Sisters. Other excellent Royal Street points of interest include Painted Alive Gallery, Cornstalk Bed and Breakfast, and the Carousel Bar, located inside Hotel Montelone.

Our Local Expert Says:

The street performers and fortune tellers in Jackson Square are great, but if a man asks you to make a bet about where you got your shoes, don’t fall for it! He’ll say “you got your shoes in Jackson Square in New Orleans, Louisiana!”

Description:

Jackson Square is a beautiful little park that sits in front of the commanding St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in America. Presiding over the park is a statue of Andrew Jackson on his horse, and surrounding the square are artists and street performers, as well as horse-drawn carriages waiting to take you on a tour of the Quarter. Have the fortune tellers look at your palm, or let a local artist draw your caricature. Of course, there are also museums, shops, and restaurants surrounding Jackson Square, including Muriel's, a five-star haunted restaurant where each day the wait-staff sets a table and pours wine for their resident ghost. "We don't know who drinks the wine," they say, "but every morning it's gone." In Jackson Square at night, you really can feel the presence of the ghosts of New Orleans past.  During the Christmas Season, Jackson Square is the spot for nighttime caroling, and in the spring the park blooms with bright flowers. 

Description:

Angeli specializes in both Italian food and Mediterranean food, both considered delectable delights that you would normally find in a first class restaurant. Angeli is instead a bright and electric one-room establishment located in the French Quarter that is always buzzing. The activity here is due to the 24 hours service on Fridays and Saturdays. Angeli is open until 4a on other days of the week. Decor includes flashy disco balls from the 70s and lots of neon lights. It is the perfect place for a party, late night dinner or early breakfast. Menu items include veggie pitas, breakfast pitas and pizzas, hummus, salads, sandwiches and calzones. Delivery service is available to local hotels in the area.

Description:

The world-class Audubon Institute's Aquarium of the Americas was one of the saddest of so many terrible Katrina stories. The facility had superb hurricane contingency plans, not to mention engineering that one only wishes was shared by the levee system, and consequently both building and fishy residents came through the initial storm beautifully. But as the days following the evacuation stretched out, and the staff was forced to leave so that government relief efforts could use the building as a staging area, generators failed, and most of its 10,000 fish died, breaking the hearts of not only the staff who worked so hard to keep their charges healthy and alive, but of just about anyone who had ever visited this lovely place. Survivors included the popular otter pair, the penguins, the leafy and weedy sea dragons, and Midas, the 250-pound sea turtle. The facility's reopening in May 2006 was a cause for rejoicing, not least because those penguins, who memorably were marched out of the aquarium during the post-storm days to take a flight to Oakland for a temporary stay, were flown home from their vacation via a specially designated FedEx flight, marching down the ramp and into the building just like they were auditioning for a certain penguin-specific movie!

As it gets back up to speed, this will once again be a world-class aquarium, highly entertaining and painlessly educational, with beautifully constructed exhibits. Kids love it, even those too impatient to read the graphics, but adults shouldn't overlook it, if for no other reason than it's a handy refuge from the rain.

The aquarium is on the banks of the Mississippi River, a very easy walk from the main Quarter action. Five major exhibit areas and dozens of smaller aquariums hold a veritable ocean of aquatic life native to the region (especially the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico) and to North, Central, and South Americas. You can walk through the underwater tunnel in the Caribbean Reef exhibit and wave to finny friends swimming all around you, view a shark-filled re-creation of the Gulf of Mexico, or drop in to see the penguin exhibit. We particularly like the walk-through Waters of the Americas, where you wander in rainforests (complete with birds and piranhas) and see what goes on below the surface of swamps; one look will quash any thoughts of a dip in a bayou. Not to be missed are a fine exhibit on frogs, the impossibly cute giant sea otters, and the ongoing drama of the sea horse exhibit. There is also an excellent new interactive play zone for kids. The long-anticipated Insectarium (yep, a museum dedicated to the over 900,000 species of things that creep, crawl, and flutter) sustained a lot of damage, but it should be open sometime in 2008. We can't wait for the termite room, the cooking demonstrations that will insist cookies made with crunchy invertebrates are worth eating, and, of course, the room about New Orleans bugs, including those ginormous thingies the locals insist on calling palmetto bugs, but we know perfectly well are just fancy roaches. The Insectarium will be in the former U.S. Customs House, at 423 Canal St. The IMAX theater shows two or three films at regular intervals. Look for an astonishing Katrina documentary, showing the flooding and the rest of the devastation. The Audubon Institute also runs the city's zoo at Audubon Park uptown. Combination tickets for the aquarium, the IMAX theater, and the zoo via air-conditioned shuttle to the zoo are $31 for adults, $22 for seniors, $21 for children. Zoo and Aquarium combo tickets including shuttle ride are $25 for adults, $14 for children, $9 for seniors. You can also buy tickets for different combinations of the attractions. Round-trip from aquarium to zoo on the steamship John James Audubon with admission to both is $41 for adults and $23 for children.

Description:

The Entergy IMAX features the wonders of nature captured in three stories of vivid, in your face, color. These movies, usually an hour long, complement the nature themes introduced by the Aquarium and other Audubon facilities. This IMAX is an entertaining and educational window into the natural world.

Description:

This tour takes passengers aboard the Sternwheeler on a tour of the Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium of the Americas. Four daily trips depart from the Riverwalk (in front of the Aquarium) at 10a, noon, 2p and 4p. Return trips leave from the zoo at 11a, 1p, 3p and 5p. Tickets can be purchased for one-way. Or round trip tickets can be purchased with or without aquarium and zoo admission. Combination tickets will save you the most money.

Our Local Expert Says:

Audubon Park is alive with nature – ducks, geese, egrets, and squirrels. And if you walk from Audubon Park to Riverview Park on the side of the stables, you will be able to see the giraffes inside Audubon Zoo!

Description:

Audubon Park is really several parks in one, spanning St. Charles Avenue all the way to the Mississippi River. A fitness trail circles the Audubon Golf Course and runs alongside live oak trees and lush lagoons that are home to ducks, geese, egrets, and turtles. Cross over Magazine Street, and you'll come to the Audubon Zoo and Cascade Stables. Keep walking alongside the zoo, past the Audubon Labyrinth and across the train tracks, until you get to Riverview Park. Known to locals as "the fly," this is a great spot for playing soccer, or just laying in the sun with a daiquiri, admiring the waters of the Mississippi. The park is a great place to play or picnic, and if you don't want to drive there, you can get to the park from the French Quarter on the St. Charles Streetcar or by the John James Audubon ferry boat.

Description:

This local pizzeria in the University area serves some of the best pizza in the city. The pizzeria is not much to look at, with a few scattered tables and unadorned walls, but it makes up for it with the food. You can also dine outside on sidewalk as you partake of their specialty pizza. The menu includes pizzas such as the 'Uptowner' and 'Irish Feast' which has new potatoes, fresh tomatoes and chicken as toppings. They also serve baked pasta entrees such as their stuffed shells and manicotti.

Description:

From the critter-filled swamps of Louisiana to the grasslands of Africa, you can explore some of the Earth's most intriguing habitats and the creatures that dwell within them at this world-class zoo. Rated one of the top zoos in the United States, it features two rare white tigers, as well as Komodo dragons. One of the newest exhibits, Jaguar Jungle, focuses on the people and animals of Central America, including the mysterious Mayan culture.

Description:

This neighborhood hot spot is located Uptown and features seafood and po' boys. Walls of this low-ceilinged bar are adorned with football jerseys and memorabilia. A jukebox contributes to the loud atmosphere. Steaming pots of boiled shrimp, crabs and crawfish are ready to be washed down with ice-cold beer. Po'boys here feature a variety of choices including crawfish tails, oysters, meatballs in tomato sauce or roast beef with gravy.

Description:

Located in Mid-City, near Lake Ponchatrain, is beautiful 1300-acre City Park. City Park is the home of the Botanical Garden and the New Orleans Museum of Art, as well as the Besthof Sculpture Garden, through which visitors can wander for free. Kids can meet life-size replicas of fairy tale characters in Storyland, enjoy rides at the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, or take a train ride around the entire park. City Park also has tennis courts, walking trails, a golf course and driving range, stables, and paddle boats. If you're looking for something simpler, take a walk around the duck pond or just stroll through the grounds, admiring the bald cypress trees and live oaks. City Park has more live oak trees than anywhere else in the world, some of which are several hundred years old. Although there is a playground, kids might rather explore the low, sweeping branches of these beautiful trees.

Description:

Take a short bus ride down Esplanade Avenue and discover this cafe near the racetrack. Locals have been keeping this favorite haunt a secret for far too long. The no frills appearance offers a Mardi Gras decor, with memorabilia that is never taken down. The kitchen here quite possibly serves the best gumbo in town. You may follow that with fried shrimp, catfish or a platter of oysters. The homemade salad dressings are also delicious.

Description:

Anything we just said about tourist traps and inauthentic experiences does not apply here. It does not get any more authentic than a club set in the middle of a bowling alley, which is itself set in the middle of a strip mall. Actually, as a bowling alley, Mid City bowling is nothing to write home about unless you like lanes that slope. But as a club, it's one of the finest and best experiences in New Orleans. Certainly it's the best place for zydeco, particularly on the nights devoted to Zydeco Wars, when the audience votes on whether, say, Geno Delafose or C. J. Chenier is the King of Zydeco. Mid City is not limited to just zydeco: It also features top New Orleans rock and R&B groups and some touring acts. Mid City reopened rather quickly after Katrina, and no one disagreed when the owner, gazing over a good-size crowd bopping to Kermit Ruffins, exclaimed, "It feels like New Orleans!" On good nights (though we do wonder if Mid City has any that aren't), the dance floor is crowded beyond belief, the noise level is ridiculous, the humidity level is 300%, and you won't want to leave. You might even bowl a few frames. (Expect to wait for a lane.) While the owner is quite committed to keeping his business open and in this location, the ground floors of the aforementioned strip mall flooded badly (though the Rock 'n' Bowl itself escaped without damage), and while the hope is that whatever the future of the compound is does not affect the club, you should probably call in advance to make sure the status quo remains.

Description:

Audubon Insectarium showcases the largest group of animals on the planet, insects!  Since prehistoric times, insects have played invaluable roles: pollinating crops, decomposing waste and adding intrigue, color, texture and majesty to our world. Your visit to the one-of-a-kind, interactive Audubon Insectarium will illuminate amazing things about these tiny (and not so tiny!) creatures; you'll never think about them the same way again.

Description:

Sun Ray Grill offers a 21st century American dining experience. A variety of innovative dishes are offered and to complement them there's a wide range of drinks to choose from at the bar. Fresh local ingredients are mixed with international flavors to a make this one of a kind cuisine. Duck nachos, Thai barbecue chicken with coconut rice, sesame crusted Tokyo tuna are some of the recommended dishes. A few blocks away from the convention center, this restaurant is very spacious and is perfect for large parties. The restaurant also offers the patio dining arrangement so you can enjoy an intimate and quiet alfresco dining experience.

Description:

This popular two-story interactive museum is really a playground in disguise that will keep kids occupied for a good couple of hours. Along with changing exhibits, the museum offers an art shop with regularly scheduled projects, a mini-grocery store, a chance to be a "star anchor" at a simulated television studio, and lots of activities exploring music, fitness, water, and life itself. If you belong to your local science museum, check your membership card for reciprocal entry privileges. Children 15 and under must be accompanied by parent.

Description:

Few cities can boast a thriving float-making industry. New Orleans can, and no float maker thrives more than Blaine Kern, who makes more than three-quarters of the floats used by the various krewes every Carnival season. Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World offers tours of its collection of float sculptures and its studios, where you can see floats being made year-round. Yes, they were back at work on the 2006 Mardi Gras, despite losing many already-completed floats, shortly after Katrina. (Nothing can stop the party!) Visitors see sculptors at work, doing everything from making small "sketches" of the figures to creating and painting the enormous sculptures that adorn Mardi Gras floats each year. You can even try on some heavily bejeweled and dazzling costumes (definitely bring your camera!). Although they could do more with this tour, the entire package does add up to a most enjoyable experience, and it is rather nifty to see the floats up close. All tours include King Cake and coffee.

Description:

Savor local delights like beans, jambalaya, rice and fried chicken at Deanie's Restaurant. This petite eatery is a favorite with people who want to have a hearty and filling meal without burning a hole in their pockets. The delicious biscuits are baked daily and have a sumptuous meal of bacon or shrimp and you'll surely be looking forward to visit this place again. The staff is friendly and offers prompt service.

Our Local Expert Says:

The t-shirts and other New Orleans souvenirs are cheaper at the French Market than at the other stores in the Quarter.

Description:

Running between Decatur Street and the Mississippi River, the French Market in New Orleans is the oldest city market in the U.S. Located on the same spot since 1791, the market now houses restaurants, shops, bars, and free live music (don't miss the praline samples at Aunt Sally's Praline Shop!). Near the end of the stretch is the farmer's market where visitors will find local produce as well as local delicacies such as alligator jerky, kettle corn, and an enormous collection of hot sauces. The final leg of the French Market is the open-air community flea market where merchants from all over the world sell art, crafts, jewelry, luggage, and much, much more. This is a great place to buy souvenirs, and don't be afraid to bargain!