r/AskNOLA

I'm seriously considering a move to New Orleans, and in fact I made another post asking about moving to your wonderful city.

The responses on my other post were so positive and helpful, however, I found that money was a common theme in many of the replies. In general, just having enough of it: utility bills can skyrocket some months because of pipes bursting and just the weather in general, rents are high, and you'll need to sell a kidney to afford car insurance.

So, it got me thinking. How much do you realistically need to lead a fulfilling life in New Orleans?

By "fulfilling," I don't mean living in a mansion and having caviar everyday. I just mean living in a safe area that's close to things, paying rent and other bills without panicking each month (though I'd ultimately like to buy a home), having funds to go to festivals, etc, and having some left over for savings.

If you don't mind sharing, what do you spend a month total with rent, car, insurance, utilities, going out, groceries, etc—or how much should I expect to spend? Are there other unexpected costs that someone not from New Orleans may not realize?

I work for myself from home, so I'm not worried about finding a job. However, I'd be moving on my own, so I'm concerned about being able to afford everything on just one income.

Thank you lovely people of New Orleans!

I’m taking my mother, Candi (67) to jazz fest! She always spoke about her first time at jazz fest- I decided when I made enough money, I’d take her and we’d go all out!

I’m leaving plenty of time for us to explore and walk around. Gardens and parks are very loved!

She’s pretty fit, so if anyone could recommend a great yoga place, that would be amazing. She loves coffee. Usually is vegetarian (but decided to suspend that for this trip! Fish-a-tarian!)-any crazy good veggie spots? She doesn’t drink much, but I wanted her to experience some classic NOLA drinks. She usually does not partake in the 🍃 but says she would be interested in a little bit (if possible)! She isn’t a huge shopper, but likes to pick up some local artistry.

She loves music. That’s why we’re here!

What I have so far:

22

-Manchac swamp wildlife tour (kayak)

-reservations at MaMou

23-26

-JAZZ FEST!!!

27

-NOLA street art tour

-reservations at Pêche

28

- reservations at Cafe Reconcile

A list of places I have for us to work in (or not):

Sweets

Hansens Sno-blitz

Sno-la snoballs

Angelo Brocado’s Gelato

Beignets

Loretta’s Authentic Pralines

Cafe du Monde

Bfast

Bearcat cafe 8-3

Tartine 8-3

Who dat cafe 7-2

Willa Jean

Bakery

Ayu Bakehouse

La Boulangerie

Bywater Bakery

Levee Baking Co.

Parkway Bakery

Coffee

Cherry Coffee Roasters

Mammoth

Petite Rouge

HONEY’S (?)

Mojo

Congregation Coffee

Walk

French Quarter

Garden district

City park

Bourbon Street

Jackson square

Bars

Lafittes Bar (*)

Erin Rose (*)

Arnauld’s French 75 bar

The Carousel Bar (?)

Tujagues

Sazerac House (?)

Shopping

Royal street

Magazine street

Frenchman Art Bazaar

If there is anywhere or anything I should avoid, or I’m totally missing out on some necessary experiences, please advise! I want her to love her visit (she will no matter what), and live and breathe NOLA.

Thanks in advance! See you soon NOLA ❤️

TLDR: New Orleans is an absolutely incredible city, and if I have one regret from the way I approached things it’s that I got too cute with the trendier/newer restaurants and didn’t lean heavily enough into the classics.

Day 1

Checked into Bienville House in the French Quarter.

Dropped my bags and walked straight to Napoleon House for a warm muffaletta sandwich. Delicious.

Walked over to Loretta’s in the French Market. Line took about a half hour, and beignets took another half hour after ordering. Praline stuffed beignet especially was lovely.

Walked over to Jackson Square, had a cocktail at Muriel’s and enjoyed that gorgeous view from the second level balcony.

Walked around after and got caught up in the Bourbon Street Brass Band’s procession, truly surreal experience.

Walked over to Jewel of the South for a few more cocktails. Insanely good drinks with a really cute interior.

Stopped into Cure on the way to dinner. Best cocktails of the trip, friendly and passionate bartenders.

Dinner at Saint Germain. The food was good but they were a bit disorganized, running behind. A guy who looked and sounded like Seth Rogen kept saying “oh yeah oh yeah” whenever he brought a new dish, it got old real quick. Restaurants like this need to either lower their pricing or up their staff’s professionalism, it was all very awkward. Not a bad meal but for a place that’s constantly mentioned as a current top 5 restaurant in the city this was not my experience.

Day 2

Headed over to Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe about 15 minutes before they opened, a few people were there already. This was the move, it all went very quickly and this was probably the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Excellent mac and cheese and gumbo too.

Rode the St. Charles Streetcar from Canal Street to Audobon Park, took a relaxing stroll around the park for a bit.

Two Chicks Garden District walking tour was tremendous. Tour leader was a woman named Dannell who was a wealth of information.

Dinner at Emeril’s. Very expensive but the food was tremendous and the staff and service were top notch. Really hit that sweet spot between friendly and refined.

Day 3

Was feeling pretty rough after a 3.5 meal with wine pairing and didn’t make my 9am Brennan’s reservation. Bananas foster will have to wait until next time.

Lunch at Commander’s Palace. Wore a suit to revere the institution, and was disappointed at how many old boomer dudes were wearing Hawaiian shirts smh. Shrimp and tasso henican and the bread pudding souffle were outrageously good. What a treat.

Sazerac House tour - fine, but not essential.

Sazerac Bar - extremely phoned in sazerac, not sure why it’s mentioned among the best in the city so often.

Bar Tonique - incredible Ramos gin fizz.

Walked around Treme and went to the Backstreet Cultural Museum. This was a surprise highlight - I had no idea it focused so much on the Mardi Gras Indians, heavily featured in the show Treme that I had been watching a lot of leading up to this trip. As essential as any tourist activity in the city imo.

Dinner at Dakar. Really interesting and unique food, first time having Senegalese fare and some of the flavors really popped. A few dishes were slight misses though and overall I felt this was overpriced for what you get.

Day 4

Breakfast at Molly’s Rise and Shine. Breakfast sandwich was good but that fried chicken biscuit! Incredible.

Headed up to City Park and walked around there for a bit, toured the Sculpture and Botanical Gardens, and walked down to St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 after.

Walked over to Parkway for lunch. Fried shrimp po boy was solid but I wish I had opted for Domilise’s instead. 13,000 steps in before lunch!

Dinner at Mosquito Supper Club. Sat with some very fun people and had a really good time. Food was very good but again, felt overpriced for what you get.

Day 5

Attempted to get to Carousel Bar before opening for a Vieux Carre but there were at least 100 people lined up already. Pass.

Lunch at Mr. B’s. Gumbo ya ya was the best I’ve ever had, and the barbecued shrimp were incredible too. It was at this point I realized I probably should have stuck to the classics instead of going where I did for dinner each night.

Checked out French Quarter Fest. Incredible music, people just relaxing and enjoying themselves, loved every minute of it.

Stopped into Felix’s for chargrilled oysters. Maybe the best single bite all trip, simply incredible.

Dinner at Clancy’s. They didn’t get any soft shell crab in that day so I opted for the smoked duck and crawfish beignets. Absolutely phenomenal.

In summary - even though the smart advice seems to be to just wander around without a strict itinerary, I couldn’t not because it’s just how I prefer to travel. Packed as much as I could into 5 days and can’t wait to return one day. My trip would not have been anywhere near what it was without this sub, thanks so much to everyone who has posted over the years.

It looks like both Barataria Lreserve and Bayou Sauvage are closed. I wanna make friends* with some gators!

*In this case “make friends” means to observe from an appropriate distance and telepathically pet.

I’m visiting for a weekend in mid June and am looking at a bed and breakfast a few blocks east of Frenchman St. Is that’s good area? I’m stopping on my way to Texas from Virginia and will have my own car.

We will be in town for the long weekend and are new to these kinds of clubs. I want my gf to be hit on and enjoy herself- she is very attractive and Id love to get her topless or naked and talking to other men.

What can I expect on the Friday before Memorial day? Do you suggest we get there when it opens at 9? What to wear?

Thanks in advance guys!

Hi all! Wife and I will be coming to for 3.5 days in May - it’ll be our first time in the city, and we already have ideas for how to spend the days / food places we’re interested in, but would appreciate help rounding everything out:

Day 1 (settle down afternoon / evening):

- Land at ~3pm, Uber or public transit to the Roosevelt hotel

- Dinner: GW Fins (will make a reservation)

- Walk FQ / Bourbon street

- Drink: Nightcap at Sazerac Bar

Day 2 (French Quarter Day):

- Wandering around / sightseeing and doing typical FQ activities (Cafe du Monde, beignets, French Market, etc.)

- Lunch: Napoleon House for Pimm’s and muffuletta

- Sazerac House tour mid-afternoon

- Drink: Early evening reservation at Jewel of the South (we’re both really into cocktails, so this one has been a bucket list item for us)

- Dinner: Clesi’s

- Potentially getting ice cream snack at Angelo Brocato

*Know that Clesis is a bit out of the way from the rest of the day so not totally married to this yet. Though my wife had mentioned she wanted seafood boil / crawfish at some point during the trip multiple times (and happy wife happy life haha). Would love thoughts on Clesis / if there are other good alternatives*

Day 3 (Garden District / Magazine Street day):

- St. Charles streetcar towards Uptown

- Wander Garden District

- Lunch: Turkey and the Wolf (any other lunch places to consider? This’ll be M/T, so Commanders Palace doesn’t have lunch)

- Walk and explore / shop on Magazine Street (as far as we can get)

- Dinner: Clancy’s (will make a res)

- Drink: Bar Tonique for some classic cocktails

Day 4 (Final Day - City Park & Catch Up):

- Walk and explore Treme

- Lunch: Li’l Dizzy’s

- City Park / Sculpture Garden / stroll post-lunch

- Head to airport for ~7pm flight

Share the best Cinco de Mayo spots please! Open to anywhere in the city.

Hey, all!

I’m not going to bore you all with the details of this trip we having coming up, but I needed to get some information on two things: gumbo and bayou tour transportation.

Okay, we have two people on our trip that do not eat pork at all, but we really want to enjoy a lot of the favourite creole food flavors while we’re down here.

1.) where can we go to get chicken gumbo without pork?

Also, we are doing a bayou tour (which we are definitely excited for), but when we booked it, they didn’t tell us that we needed to essentially get their transportation as Ubers and Lyfts won’t drop people out there.

The address for the place is: 5154 Fleming Rd. In Lafitte. Is this right? We should be able to adjust the tickets, but we can only do this one time, so if we need their bus transportation, we wanna know 100% before we do it.

2.) Will Ubers and Lyfts really not drop people out in the Bayou?

Thank you, all! Looking forward to visiting your great city!

Are there any good places for Lao style papaya salad in NOLA? My search only shows thai restaurants and even not a few have thai style papaya salads. Whats a good place in NOLA for good authentic Lao style papaya salad?

I have an extra ticket and my friend can’t go. Free ticket.

Good to be back, first time visiting since before Covid and have missed your beautiful vibe. I love finding new to me bands. Discovered Bag of Donuts and Sally Baby so far this year. Any recommendations?

Title

10 years ago my now husband and I visited with an artist who created, among other things, headboards made out of reclaimed doors and things like tin ceiling tiles. This was in the garden district and we were with an interior decorator who was showing us the sights.

We were broke at the time and through the years I have always thought about the headboard as a “one day” kind of purchase. I cannot for the life of me remember any details, except the images in my mind.

Thanks in advance!

Coming to Nola next weekend, I am wondering if we need reservations for lunches on Sunday/Monday? We are thinking of hitting up Willie Mae's and Lufu Nola.

Or is it casual?

Hey Y’all so like I was wondering if there were any clubs or bars in town that let dolls pole dance or something ?? I know it’s not a life to fetishize but I could really use the money and I heard that the girls in this industry make a lot per night.

Metairie native here (19)—I’m currently living in the Northeast, but I’ll be back home for the summer in May.

I’m looking to do a vintage banker style photoshoot, so if there are any photographers in NOLA, Metairie, or the surrounding area trying to build their portfolio, feel free to reach out. College students and professionals are both welcome.

I haven’t been back in a while, so if you know of any spots with that kind of classic, vintage background, send me a PM as well. If you message me, please include some of your previous work or anything similar to that style.