13 TIPS FOR NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - Fun Activities & Must-Know's For Your Big Easy Vacation!

what's up travelers it's liz from means to travel and i am here today with my friend eric from travel adventures with eric b and the reason why he's here with me today is because we are sitting in new orleans louisiana in jackson square and he is a louisiana native we're gonna be sharing our tips for visitors to new orleans louisiana so let's jump into it first tip that we're gonna share is how do you pronounce this city am i in new orleans you pronounce this city new orleans but like new orleans new orleans new orleans did i get it right right new orleans yes so if you say new orleans when you're here people are going to look at you a little funny aren't they yeah they'll know you're not from here don't know you're a tourist you don't want to be known as a tourist those people those are bad people they get taken advantage of but one thing that you did teach me is that the parish that new orleans is in is actually called orleans parish correct yes orleans parish but new orleans yeah so we're in new orleans and things here are like open all day aren't they things are open very late as far as as far as the tourism industry at least if you're out in the french quarter you can find a bar open 24 hours a day to get a drink there's a lot of things open all night here in new orleans and from what i've experienced so far this is my second day in new orleans people are drinking all day oh yeah i think they i think they go to sleep with like a drink in their hand as they hit the pillow and i think they wake up with that same drink oh my gosh i guess that leads us into the next one well you know louisiana has interesting laws when it comes to wicker you talk about the container policy in louisiana it's the only state that i know of where you can buy a drive-in daiquiri you could go to a shop pull up in the driveway and buy a daiquiri the only the only thing is you can't put the straw in but you can buy it right there and then take it away at least they say do they give you a straw they give you a straw i mean if you put it in i mean that's on you but they say don't don't put the straw in but they do give you a straw that's where you get in trouble straws be careful [Laughter] of those paper straws no one likes you yeah those are gonna melt by the time you get to where you're going um anyway so the crazy things that if you're from out of town like me is seeing people walking around the streets with just an open beer open cocktail in their hands normally where i'm from there's no open container laws at all so that's definitely a difference but there's one caveat to that it can't be glass though so if you can't walk around with like a glass bud light bottle you got to put in a plastic cup but you can walk around with plastic and drink in new orleans so what that means then is that people can take their drinks to go right from bar to bar can you walk into a bar with some other bars drinks some some bars are funny about it but i've done it before it depends on the establishment like some some bars will say you know you can't drink their drink in here you got to finish it before you come in but i've walked into bars before with other establishments drinks just depends i think a lot of people come here for like bachelor bachelorette parties or birthdays um like big birthdays or something like that so you see a lot of people just walking around especially the french quarter drinks in their hands having the time of their lives and also while we're talking about liquor in louisiana in general in new orleans it's one of the few states and places where you can go to walmart or go to just a random corner store somewhere and you can just buy liquor there so another thing too on top of being able to buy alcohol a lot of places that you maybe wouldn't normally be able to in other in other states other cities in the us there's also differences in like underage drinking tell me if i'm wrong but what i learned is that if you are under 21 but you're with your parents stay at a restaurant or something you can drink which is not the case where we're from you can drink if you're if you're with your parents and they give you permission you can drink yeah that's that's just mind-bogglingly different than from where i'm from in chicago um there's just a lot of differences in the liquor lab so familiarize yourself with that before you come here and yeah have fun the next one we're going to talk about is to make sure you are watching where you step because like we said people are kind of carrying around their alcohol on the streets especially in the french quarter there might be broken glass on the street you don't want to have that also maybe consider making sure you wear closed-toed shoes because i've noticed at least when i've been walking around here there's maybe broken glass there's uneven sidewalks a lot of the time you just want to not get some of that dirt and grime that's from some of those parties some of those birthday parties bachelorette parties on your feet as you're walking around so wearing sandals maybe wouldn't be the best footwear choice wearing stiletto high heels maybe would be a little hard on some of those cobblestones that sort of thing now the cobblestones and the potholes too because there are a lot of potholes that you might just randomly find walking around in new orleans so you got to be real careful with that you wear the wrong shoes you might turn the wrong way and you might twist an ankle and that that won't be a great end to a vacation if you're going to end up with a twisted ankle pot holes in the sidewalks potholes kind of in the street sometimes derrick almost fell into one that had been filled in by sand yesterday um that would have been hard to put your foot right straight into like a sand pit so yeah make sure you're like watching where you step similarly to watching where you step you might want to also be watching your surroundings right yeah you want to have situational awareness for sure and there's going to be you know there's always somebody that you know that maybe had gotten in trouble in some way in new orleans maybe they had too much to drink and kind of lost their situational awareness don't be that person and i would say this too if you're a tourist and you're here don't be that person where you'll see someone fighting or someone about to start something and you go run to it and go stand in line to watch it i i say get away from it and go do go do something else don't stand there and try to be a part of it because you know jumping into a bad situation can only put you in a worse situation also make sure if you're driving by any chance well i don't recommend you drive across bourbon street but if you are or you're driving anywhere in the french quarters watch out for the drunk people if you are driving across bourbon street oftentimes people would jump in front of your car they would dance they would do stupid things so you really want to avoid that you want to park a little further out or you want to park early before people out if you can you want to stay away from that for sure and speaking of bourbon street the next tip that we're gonna share is that new orleans is not just bourbon street and new orleans is a lot more than just bourbon street i will say when i was in college i used to come down here all the time and i would go to bourbon street and i'd party every week and it was all about partying on bourbon street but now you know i can appreciate more the culture of new orleans walking around looking at the beautiful architecture all the great museums there's so many areas and so many things you can do central business district magazine street there's just so much around the sea and to do in new orleans to have nothing to do with bourbon street and there's areas out here in the french quarters that are close to bourbon street but they're still you don't have to go on bourbon street to have a great time you can have a great time one street over on royal yeah i've noticed that a lot of the restaurants that i'm very excited about in new orleans are actually in the garden district right yeah and and uh frenchman street that's one i wanted to throw in too because a lot of the locals go to frenchman street you should definitely go check out frenchman street where the locals are and see how the locals do things instead of just being around the tourists throwing up everywhere and uh and not not to mention the cops that ride around with the horses they drop horse manure on the ground everywhere you know situational awareness again don't step in it make sure you're looking maybe don't wear open-toed shoes if that's a risk as well i've made that mistake before i've stepped in it oh no he's like and i'm gonna warn everyone for my never again next tip even though we've been talking about people partying a lot yucky things on the streets new orleans is actually a cool place to bring your kids if you have them right well the thing about new orleans is i say it's a great place to bring your kids because there's so many parks and green space like we're out here right now in front of jackson square and i'm looking at a whole big park right there kids running around there's a armstrong park that's close by city park is amazing you can go to city park right by the uh art museum and then there's the little ducks out in the ocean you can get on the ocean the pond but you can get in the ducks and ride around on the ducks there's a great children's museum these are like little boats that are shaped like that exactly so fun yeah and then the zoo is really good the audubon zoo the aquarium of america's right down here right behind us is really good aquarium so there's so many things you can do with your kids and you can bring them in the french quarters just don't bring them on bourbon street late in the evening or at night yeah i feel like there's just too many people being too unpredictable probably that time of day very tip is that when you are here there's so many great food and drink options that are like kind of local favorites local to new orleans definitely check those out make sure you try as many as you can a few of them are do you want to share fantastic um fantastic they're all fantastic some of my some of my favorites is our gumbo i'm kind of a gumbo snob so if it's not a really good gumbo because i love gumbo jambalaya's one of my favorites crawfish and shrimp into fade boudin sausage and not boudin sausage not boudin boudin sausage and one more thing i was gonna say too because a lot of people come here like from different areas i don't like cajun and spicy food and all that you should give it a try because i've known people who say they don't they don't like cajun or spicy food and then when they try it they fall in love with it and then there's a french market right there that if you go there they have a lot of samples of things so you can try some of this food before you buy so i recommend you know try it out give it a try we did a walking tour earlier today together and our tour guide mentioned at the french market there's muffaletta sandwiches too um that you can try and i think that would be really fun um there's also the muffaletta sandwiches they are a local favorite but they're not even the most famous sandwich in new orleans the most famous one is the po boy the po boy and there's so many different types of po boys they're generally on french bread baguettes but sometimes you get a little softer french bread i prefer the softer french bread rather than the harder for the po boys depending on how they cook it but there's so many different kinds you got the roast beef you got the good hot ones like that turkey ham shrimp i want to try a shrimp po boy while in here shrimp oh boy is amazing you can't go wrong with the shrimp pork boy and the golf shrimp too a lot of people like the oyster po boys too that's that's a pretty popular one too that's cool we actually tried a local oyster that was charbroiled oysters when we were at a restaurant last night that was pretty delicious so always if you're going to a restaurant maybe ask what they're known for figure out what the local favorites are try the cajun try the creole try all of the local types of cuisines and also derek just reminded us that we need to talk about something that we just had this morning that's the vignette fantastic cafe beignet was better than cafe dumont for my money but they were both great and i don't know if we're going to release that video before or after this one where we try both cafe vigne and cafe du monde beignets but stay tuned if we haven't already or i'll put a link if we have down below and you can see the difference between those two beignets those are the most famous ones here for sure you'll like either one but cafe beignet is really fresh and really good so good then on top of that there's also local drinks there's definitely like drinks that are very famous to new orleans there's the sazerac the ingredients of a sazerac are rye absinthe sugar and bitters and it's definitely something that you see on a lot of menus here in new orleans also a beat of beer if you have beers nationwide or beetle beers located is everywhere now really good beer but there's a lot of beers from louisiana now that's everywhere yeah and there's cocktails too so hurricanes and grenades hand grenades you'll see people wandering around with those they're kind of in this like funny shape yeah they're in this green thingamajig yeah yeah um and then the hurricanes are like a more pomegranate type drink as well both of those are a little bit sweeter right right next tip is to absolutely make sure to check out the local museums if you have time the one that i went to yesterday with derek was the national world war ii museum and it was phenomenal you've been there before too i've been there before excellent museum yeah you have to give a ton of time for that one because it is very large very extensive um and there's a great video that you can watch at the beginning of or you know whenever you want to actually while you're there but we did it at the beginning and it kind of gives us a good overview of the history of the war and it's produced by tom hanks i believe like he's in it so that's kind of fun too um and it's very interactive it's in this imax theater on top of that there's just tons of information about america's involvement in world war ii what other museums would you say um i really like the new orleans uh art museum which is a beautiful area in city park the museum is massive like you can be there all day i have a video on it it's it's a really nice museum there's a lot to see and one of the cool things about it is a sculpture garden outside you pay an additional five dollars to go in and the sculpture garden is also amazing i have a video on the sculpture garden as well as the art museum both of those are fantastic i highly recommend it there's also there's also a museum called blaine kearns mardi gras world which i also have a video on but that's a really cool museum because if you're ever interested in the mardi gras floats how the floats are made different types of floats like there's a million different floats in there and you can actually see the way they're made and there's videos and everything and it's located uh by the moriel convention center and if you've ever taken a cruise out of new orleans it's right next to the cruise port oh nice those are great options i feel like i really want to go to the art museum now there's we're also looking at another museum the state of louisiana museum is that that's what it's called or louisiana state museum we're looking at right now across from us here in this view yeah it's really large too um you can also go visit the cathedral here st louis cathedral yeah right next to the louisiana state museum too so lots of really great indoor activities i guess if it's raining too if you want to go see museums and stuff the next thing to check out is absolutely check out the music scene when you're here we haven't actually done that much yet um i've only been here for like 48 hours at this point but i really want to go see at least some jazz musicians play but you were saying there's music everywhere there's music everywhere and uh there's a lot of free music here and there's so many theaters that have shows here like you know if there's an artist you like there's a lot of places a lot of music theaters the sanger to fill more and those type of places but there's a ton of places where you can go see free shows all around here um there's on frenchman street i mentioned that earlier there's always live music playing there there's always live music on bourbon street there's always live music all down here in the french quarter there's so many street performers as well that are really good that just put on a show randomly out in the french quarters and you just pick up a seat you know tip them a few dollars they're doing a great job they're working their butts off for you you know and sit back and just enjoy some music absolutely familiarize yourself with the history of jazz a little bit too because there's a jazz museum right down the street yeah jazz museum yeah so lots of really great music to to experience when you're here so just definitely make sure to check all that out the final thing that we're going to talk about is other than kind of the things to do we're going to do a quick little call out at the end of this video and say make sure that you are aware of the weather when you come to new orleans oh you definitely want to make sure you're aware of the weather aware of hurricane season for one because hurricane season usually starts in june and ends in september a lot of hurricanes usually hit around the end of the season around august and september that's when the bigger ones have hit you know the katrinas and the gustavs and all of those yeah so definitely be aware of that be aware of the heat and mugginess and humidity starting pretty much about may every year and going all the way through september and also be very aware that if you come here in like december or january make sure you check the forecast because it might be cool and cold or it might be hot i mean there's been a lot of hot christmases here so yeah you know it all varies but be very aware of the humidity one way or another if it is cold it'll be cold and damp yeah exactly and if it's hot you're gonna really feel it yeah we're here in december right now and it's actually a beautiful day um i'm wearing you know tank top oh it's probably in the low 70s but just last week you were saying it's in the 50s so yeah definitely look at that that weather forecast for when you're here and pack accordingly all right well thank you so much eric for walking us through all of the tips from our visitors to new orleans this is very helpful for me as i am a first time visitor here this weekend why don't you say where we can find you on youtube real quick you can find me on youtube at travel adventures with eric b and you can find me at instagram and facebook at travel adventures with eric b definitely make sure that you guys go check out his channel again i'm putting all the information down below also make sure please press that thumbs up button if you like this video and also make sure to press that red subscribe button below too if you haven't already so that way you don't miss any of the travel videos and travel tips on this channel to come thanks so much for watching cheers happy travels [Music] [Laughter] that's definitely going in the blooper reel absent amanda's got behind the restricted wall age-restricted wall make sure i'm 21. touchdown also make sure you're a sports fan i've only seen one person talking themselves today that's like a record low at this point yeah usually i see like four by now hey travelers don't forget to subscribe and let's hang out more here are some links to other helpful travel videos on my channel and press that notification bell so you don't miss any new and awesome travel videos to come

Channel: Means To Travel

Views: 65,760

Keywords: new orleans, new orleans travel guide, french quarter new orleans, new orleans travel, mardi gras, french quarter, nola, what to do in new orleans, things to do in new orleans, new orleans louisiana, bourbon street, jackson square, new orleans trip, new orleans vacation, new orleans vlog, new orleans tips, new orleans food, what to eat in new orleans, new orleans tour, nola food, nola trip, new orleans guide, new orleans tips for tourists, travel tips, new orleans advice

Id: bzN2P7P6bbA

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2022