Long Weekend in New Orleans

We recently got back from our trip to New Orleans for a friend’s wedding and had such a great time! I wanted to share a few photos and what we did, along with some extra recommendations we received.

We stayed at the incredible Hotel Peter & Paul—a spot that had been on my list since it opened! It lived up to my expectations and then some. Highly recommend staying here if you find yourself traveling to New Orleans. A lot of people also recommended staying at Soniat House.

One of my must-do’s for a trip to New Orleans is to do a swamp tour. We did this our first day and it was so cool. We went with Cajun Encounters to Honey Island Swamp and opted for the smaller boat, which has less passengers (and no kids) and allowed us to be a lot closer to the animals (alligators, blue herons, pigs, racoons, etc.). It’s a bit of a trip outside the city, but they pick you up downtown and drop you back afterward. There are also other tour companies that go to swamps closer to New Orleans. We went on the 5pm tour to experience beautiful pre-sunset light. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy that day, but still very magical.

We did a ton of walking and exploring as we only had two days to pack as much in as we could. The day we arrived, we did the French Quarter, stopping for lunch at Central Grocery & Deli for their famous muffuletta sandwich. We wandered around popping in and out of stores, including Bourbon French Parfums which has been around since 1843! I picked up a rollerball of their Sweet Olive scent and will always remember our trip when I wear it. And we of course went to the famous Café Du Monde for beignets and chicory coffee, a must visit when in New Orleans.

After our swamp tour, we ended our night at Bachannal wine bar. It’s a really unique spot where you pick a bottle of wine, some meats & cheeses and head to their backyard to listen to live jazz music. It was the perfect spot to wind down and relax and hear incredible music. We didn’t make it to Frenchman Street, but everyone kept telling us about it for live jazz.

The next day, we started by walking around the beautiful Garden District and meandered down Magazine Street. We had lunch at Saba, which ended up being our favorite meal of the entire trip. Really incredible and interesting Israeli food—highly recommend! That night we had dinner at N7, which was very good, but a little over-hyped in my opinion.