Has anyone here visited New Orleans as a tourist since Katrina? I haven’t been in close to ten years, and I read that they could use the $$ tourism brings, so I was thinking of going this Fall.
If anyone has gone, I’d love to know when you went, where you stayed, ate, drank, etc. and how your experience was in general. I’d be most interested in the French Quarter, and the Garden District.
Were most things open? Were there crowds, or is it empty of tourists now? Restaurants, bars, shops, etc., mostly back up and running?
And out of perhaps morbid curiousity, did anyone take a “tour” of the devasted areas? I don’t think I would actually do that, but I would be curious to hear of your experiences.
I haven’t been, but a friend of mine went to a convention there a few months ago. The French Quarter was mostly up and running, but outside of that area it was pretty hit or miss.
I am from Louisiana, went to college in New Orleans, and my little brother still lives in Baton Rouge. My wife, who also went to college there, went down a few months ago. From what I hear, it is still a really good time. The French Quarter and the Garden District weren’t really damaged all that severely and the needed to get the tourism flowing as soon as possible. That isn’t to say that things haven’t changed but I hear that all the core things and spirit and still alive and well.
From what I’ve heard, the city’s doing okay, although keep in mind New Orleans was never too clean, too safe, or too orderly anyway. Southern Decadence is late August-early September, that should be a hell of a time.
I was there for a conference in June - before this, it’d been years since I’d been to New Orleans, and then it was for business, so I mostly stayed in Kenner or Metairie - I’d never been to the Quarter before.
I stayed at one of the conference hotels in the French Quarter - I think it was the Chateau Sonesta. For the most part, the Quarter was loud and bustling, but from what I heard, if you went before, you could tell that the crowds were much smaller. I was there over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, and the only night that seemed slow to me was Sunday. Beyond that, many places were open and some were closed (this only became a problem while hunting for lunch on Saturday near but not in the conference center - now I can’t remember the place we ate, but it was fantastic).
It was a good time. Even in the Quarter there was still damage evident - but having known the city before, I couldn’t bring myself to go on one of the tours of damaged areas.
I was there as part of the first big convention to return to New Orleans, and while you could tell that some services weren’t what they used to be, everyone I talked to said that it was so much better than it had been - and that it was going to get better from there, so we should all come back before too long.
I drove through NOLA in March and ate dinnr in the French quarter. The biggest problem was parking, some of the parking lots were closed and had to park quite a long way from where I ate dinner. Pretty much the French quarter was up and hopping. There was very little noticable damage to the French quarter and the Garden District. out side of those areas however was quite a differnt matter. One area my family often stays in was devestated. There was still no electricity in the area and many of the “landmarks” were gone.
