December Dreams: My 3 Days in the French Quarter

December 9 - December 13, 2017

Written July 31, 2023

If you are considering a visit to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana in December, I highly recommend it! This was one of my favorite places to visit. The hotel, the area, the time of year, even the length of the trip seemed to work perfectly. The weather is milder, which makes walking from place to place more pleasant. Additionally, there are less tourists than usual so you can visit the shops and restaurants with less wait time. Let’s not forget the holiday decorations!

Photo 1: Inside the Hop on and Hop off bus

Photo 2: Bourbon street at night

Photo 3: French Quarter beads

As you may know from some of my other stories, I tend to pick a destination but not create a jam-packed itinerary, instead I leave a lot of time for spur of the moment activities. But this time I booked tickets for Celebration in the Oaks. It’s a large holiday light festival in New Orleans City Park. As a side note, this was also the first trip I planned where I noticed that hotels, food, and entertainment were a bit pricier than I was expecting. Nonetheless, New Orleans was somewhere I absolutely wanted to visit.

Our trip started with a flight on Frontier Airlines out of MacArthur Airport in West Islip, NY. MacArthur is one of the smaller NY airports but parking the car and getting to the terminal less stressful. It was sort of an adventure from the start since I had never flown Frontier before, but I’d have no reservations flying with them again.

The flight to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport took about 4 and a half hours and considering it was a late afternoon flight it was quiet and uneventful. Upon entering the concourse in the New Orleans Airport one of the first things I noticed was a giant statue of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. Since our destination was one city, and the public transportation appeared to be decent, no rental car was planned for this trip. We did, however need to obtain transportation to the hotel. I knew there would be some sort of way to get to the hotel, ie: taxi, airport shuttle but I didn’t exactly price things out. Okay, I didn’t price things out at all. So the shuttle to the French Quarter was a bit more expensive than I anticipated, but still less expensive than the car rental and hotel parking for three days. I did, however plan out a second hotel that listed that they offer a free airport shuttle. Our last night was scheduled for the Best Western Plus New Orleans Airport Hotel in Kenner, LA.

We arrived at the Maison Dupuy Hotel which is located on the edge of the French Quarter, approximately a block away. Still very close to enjoy the French Quarter attractions and to walk around. The hotel itself was warm and inviting, with easy chairs, couches, and a fireplace in the welcome area. To add to the warmth, hot chocolate was available for free in the sitting area.  There was a party in the interior courtyard when we arrived. There were beautiful lights accentuating the pool. Since we arrived at around 9:30PM, we didn’t venture too far from the hotel. We walked about a block to Déjà Vu Restaurant & Bar, located at the corner of Conti & Dauphine. I wanted to include their website, but there doesn't seem to be one. It’s a small, 24-hour place with lots of personality! The food and prices were great, especially the gumbo and the rice! I love places like this!

Photo 1: Sitting room at Maison Dupuy Hotel

Photo 2: Inside Deja Vu Restaurant

Photo 3: Inside Mulate's

Day 1

Our first full day of the trip was a Sunday and it started at Café Du Monde. Known for their beignets and café au lait, we were looking forward to our visit. The walk was about three blocks and allowed us to sightsee along the way. The restaurant was crowded, which I understand is normal.  While we waited on the line, watched the crowd, and talked to others around us, we learned that you don’t wait for a table to be cleared, instead you grab a table as soon as it is vacated. The server cleans and takes your order in the same trip. We landed an outside table, but we were also able to see inside. When our server arrived, we ordered our café au lait and beignets.

After breakfast, we opted to utilize the Hop on Hop off Bus Tour to see the highlights of the French Quarter. If you are not familiar with a Hop on Hop off bus tour, they allow you to disembark at different stops on the tour and return to the bus as many times as you want within the same day (some have multi-day passes). I try to investigate any kind of transportation such as this early in my visits to an area to help explore the area more thoroughly. In 2017, the tour was approximately $40 a person for one day. Upon entry to the double decker tour bus, the bus driver gave us all beads to wear. So, now I have authentic New Orleans beads! We snagged our seats on the higher level, which was outside, this way we could take better photos. Our driver/guide was very knowledgeable and shared some fun stories. You could tell that he enjoyed being an entertainer. We went through most of the tour, then took advantage of the hop off/hop on to eat at The Original Cajun Restaurant Mulate’s for a late lunch.

Mulate’s The Original Cajun Restaurant is walking distance from the New Orleans convention center and down the block from one of the tour bus stops.  It was a large place and was nicely decorated. The food was a little pricey, but totally worth it! The restaurant included a small stage and a dance area so they must have live music. Since it was an off type of year and time of day, the restaurant was a bit quiet, but you can tell it had the capacity to get busy. I prefer quiet, so this worked perfect for me. This way I can look around at the building, ceiling, walls, decorations and soak it all in. They also had a counter for souvenirs. We made it back to the bus stop just in time for the last ride of the day, completed the tour (there was one stop left) then got off  a stop that wasn’t too far from our hotel. Later that night, we walked back to Déjà Vu for a snack.

Day 2

Our second day, we went to The Court of Two Sisters for brunch. It’s historic! There is live jazz music! They serve creole food! It’s also a quick 2-block walk from our hotel. The building and courtyard were stunning. The brunch buffet tables were located inside, but the jazz music was outside. We opted to sit outside and were seated under the trees in the courtyard.  I would suspect in the summer, sitting outside in the courtyard would not be very pleasant, but it was fine for December. The birds in the courtyard were bold and not shy about landing on our table. We went to the buffet in shifts, each of us took a turn guarding the table and water glasses from our friendly feathered friends.

During the afternoon, we walked to get coffee at Arrow Café, approximately a block in the opposite direction from the French Quarter. The cafe was right near the bus stop that we would need later. (As of this writing it seems Arrow Café has been permanently closed.) Remember, earlier I said I bought tickets to see the Celebration in the Oaks? Well… I didn’t realize that this park wasn’t near to the hotel…or even in the French Quarter! I thought the Hop On/Hop Off bus would take us, but that was wrong. Lucky for me, my traveling companion is resourceful. We were able to take the RTA (Regional Transit Authority) that runs along Canal Street. The walk from the bus to the festival area was approximately a half mile but it was tiring for me. The area that we disembarked was oddly quiet, we didn’t see any people that got off at our stop or even walking around which made me question that we were in the right area. But, once we got into the park, it was clear we were in the right place. For a Monday night, the place was bustling. Lots of children running around with their parents not far behind and packs of teenagers. This area of the park held a carousel and amusement park train. We rode the train to see the festival lights and spent some time at the carousel taking photos. Then walked around the remainder of the festival area to see the decorations. Our experience at Celebration in the Oaks lasted approximately 90 minutes. This was mostly to ensure that we were able to take the bus back to our hotel. But also, I was a bit chilled which is unusual because it was in the 50’s.

We arrived back at the French Quarter by 8:00PM and started our planned bar visits. Our first drink of the night was The Sazerac, at The Carousel Bar and Lounge in Hotel Monteleone. The Sazerac is the official cocktail of New Orleans. The bar was very crowded so I asked two women who had empty chairs at their table if we could join them, and they said yes! Our next stop was the Copper Monkey, which is approximately a block away. There we grabbed a burger and beer at the bar. My beer was strawberry! Unrelated to the trip, I think is when I posted my first photo to Instagram, hah! One of the oldest bars in New Orleans was our third stop. We didn’t stay long at Jean Lafitte’s Olde Absynthe House, but we did each order an absinthe frappe. It was cool sitting in a building that was 200 years old! Fourth bar, Pat O’Brien’s. Getting tired. Did not experience all that Pat O’Brien’s had to offer, instead slipped into an empty part of the place and ordered a Hurricane from the bartender. Our final bar stop was of course Déjà Vu. I don’t remember what drink I ordered. At this point it was nearly midnight, so we headed back to the hotel.

Photo 1: Courtyard at Court of Two Sisters

Photo 2: View of Celebration in the Trees in City Park

Photo 3: sundown at the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park

Day 3

Our last day was saved for exploring and souvenir shopping. We ate breakfast at Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter hotel which was a few blocks from Maison Dupuy. The hotel was decorated for the season and breakfast was perfect. My original hope was to stay at Four Points, but I think staying at the Maison Dupuy helped us explore more of the area by foot. The Maison Dupuy was a few blocks closer to the RTA than Four Points as well, so it really did work out well for us this trip. I’d return to stay at the hotel in a heartbeat.

We saw some great souvenir’s, more than we could carry in our overnight bags. There was this beautiful painted artwork on building tiles of buildings and places that looked like the French Quarter, I wanted to bring every one of them home with me! We purchased our t-shirts and magnets and returned to the hotel to pack up our luggage.

New Orleans offered a lot of different food experiences, and there was one more type of food we wanted to try before we left, a muffaletta. Our destination today was Johnny’s Po-Boys on St. Louis Street (approximately 6 blocks from the hotel). Unlike every other place we visited on this trip, Johnny’s closed at 4:30PM. We split a po’boy and took the muffaletta to go. Upon return to Maison Dupuy, we checked out and ordered an Uber to next hotel, the Best Western Plus New Orleans Airport Hotel in Kenner, LA.

Our Uber driver was super pleasant. He talked to us the whole way to the next hotel. Sharing stories about his family and life in Louisiana. The Best Western in Kenner was truly convenient, approximately 15 minutes by car from the airport. The room was clean, and the staff was very hospitable. Luckily, the front desk there was super cool too, because I didn’t contact them about needing transportation to the hotel early the next morning. Since the hotel advertised it, I thought they had someone one prepared to shuttle patrons back and forth. I thought wrong, ooops! They were able to arrange a driver for us. Another interesting fact, there isn’t much to eat nearby the hotel, or wasn’t in 2017. Good thing we saved that muffaletta!

Although a bit more expensive than I anticipated, this New Orleans trip remains one of my favorite.

Photo 1: Souvenir artwork as I mentioned

Photo 2: Inside Johnny Po-Boys

Photo 3: Inside Old Absynthe House

Things I learned from planning this trip:

Don’t expect that transportation will work itself out, research it ahead of time. December is a perfectly good time to visit New Orleans.

Things I keep in mind when organizing a trip for myself:  

always leave something to go back for. Next time I’d like to see the city of New Orleans, take a ghost/voodoo tour, take a swamp boat ride, and see Anne Rice’s house.

Some information, such as walking distances and names of businesses were confirmed by using ChatGPT.

Written July 31, 2023

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