New Orleans Guide Day 3 & 4

Day 3

We were a little slow moving in the morning so again we didn’t leave enough time for sit-down breakfast. Our tour at the Whitney Plantation was at 10, and was about 40 minutes out of the city, so we hit the road, and found a donut and coffee drive through place on our way.

I don’t want to disparage the tour at the Whitney as a whole, but our tour guide had a super strange demeanor throughout. She seemed bored, or indifferent with our group, or like she was reciting it monotone from notes. We ended up leaving perplexed and disappointed. Thrillist had posted that as being the best option for a plantation tour – being that they share about the slaves perspective/lives and she did not do it justice.

Determined to salvage the day, we headed back to New Orleans. We stopped at the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and wandered the grounds (it’s free). It was a gorgeous sunny day out, and we were glad to be outside walking around. We worked up an appetite and wanted to have a treat. To Brennan’s we headed for Bananas Foster. What a cool restaurant to stop into. It’s more fine dining, but we sat at the bar and they put on a little tableside show for you with the dessert dish. Totally worth experiencing.

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We still had a couple of other bars we wanted to stop at, so first we wandered down to the Carousel Bar. It was completely packed, so we did not stick around and have a drink. We carried on to the Old Absinthe house, and tried their specialty cocktails (but no Absinthe for us).  We didn’t want the true obliterated Bourbon Street experience. To compromise, we grabbed a Grenade from Tropical Isle to sip on the way back to our hotel.

This brings me to the ultimate sandwich. Verti Marte was on our suggestion list, and this “po-boy” was EVERYTHING. It was a mess of ooey-gooey deliciousness. This was not your typical shrimp po-boy. We wolfed this sandwich down, and it was the only one we were both resentful about splitting. The men’s NCAA championship game was playing that night. We discussed finding somewhere to watch, but decided to just chill in our hotel room to finish the night. We did order pizza later on from Vieux Carre Pizza because they delivered and it was great pizza. The front desk asked where we ordered from when I came down to get it, and approved of our choice as well.

Day 4

It was good thing to lay low the night before, because we finally allotted enough time for brunch… or so we thought. We decided on Elizabeth’s, and ate like royalty. Would totally recommend, it’s a funky restaurant with amazing food. Our swamp tour was that morning and I thought we were all good on timing because it was at 10 a.m. In reality, it was actually at 9:30. So we were about 10 minutes out when I get a call asking if we’re still coming for the tour.

At that point I realized I messed up. Nick is speeding down the road, because they said they couldn’t wait for us. We are literally pulled over in FRONT OF THE tour. We’re watching our group walk down to the boats. God was watching over us, because the policeman asked what was going on and Nick said, “we’re not doing so well – we’re late for our tour.” The policeman asked, “where’s your tour?” Nick goes, “right there,” and the policeman goes, “have a nice day,” and lets us go. Then to add the cherry on top, we didn’t miss our tour – they let us get on still. All ended well, thank God!

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The swamp tour itself was found through TripAdvisor, and was Cajun Encounters. We saw a wild pig, several alligators, a snake, and a disgustingly large spider. Our guide was knowledgeable and funny. I was glad we weren’t sitting back by him, because he was messing with all the people back there and scaring them. It was a beautiful morning on the boat, and worth the trip out of the city. I’m pretty sure they also do a pick up/drop off option from downtown New Orleans, so then you definitely wouldn’t be late like us.

We had to head back and checkout of our hotel. The staff were so friendly and accommodating. They definitely made sure our experience was high quality. On our way back into New Orleans, we discussed what to do with the rest of our day, because our flights weren’t until later at night. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum had been recommended and they only do one “tour” at 1 p.m. daily. The time aligned and we stopped in to experience that.

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This was the only negative tall moment of the trip, thankfully. The reason tour is in quotation marks, is because it’s really just one big room. The guy basically moves around the room and grabs random things and gives context to what you’re seeing. Overall I’d recommend the tour. With that being said, it got super crowded, and there wasn’t really room to move around. So we got berated by people for being tall and in their way; instead of politely asking like a normal human being. So that ruined the tour a little bit. Plus other women who were nowhere near us, were yelling about Amazons as well. For the record, the gentlemen is just talking half the time there is nothing to “see” that you’re missing or he passed things around the room.

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So we hightailed it out of the there to get away from the bad energy. Like I said, I do recommend the tour. You probably won’t find an awesome spot to stand out of everyone’s way, it’s just the nature of it. They hyped it up as being super gross and making people faint, but I think you’d have to be super sensitive to hearing about medical treatments etc to experience this.

We went back to the hotel to get our rental car. Then we decided to head back to the park area where the Sculpture Garden was and take a nap.

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From there we figured we’d head to the airport because my flight was an hour or two earlier than Nick’s. It was tough to leave, but overall we really felt like we did the best possible with the time we had. We’d both come back, as there is always more to do and experience! New Orleans was too good us, and we’d recommend visiting wholeheartedly.

Quick outfit notes. I wore my favorite linen culottes on Day 3. They kept me comfortable and from overheating while we were walking around. I got this tank top from Asos as well, and it is also a tall. It’s just an easy basic to pack and remix on a trip. The slides are from Nordstrom Rack. I found them in the Winter, but you have to snatch up good sandals whenever the size and price are right. The slides impressed me with how comfortable they were for walking all day, and no blisters!

Let us know in the comments below, have you visited New Orleans? Is it on your list of places to go? Why or why not?

Outfit Details