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My list of things to do in New Orleans was huge. Not only things to do but things to taste mostly. Did I get to taste everything? Well, no of course not. Because the list of must tries was so long I wouldn’t have been able to taste it all if we would have stayed two weeks. And the only time we had was a short 2 days.
Table of contents
Things to do and eat in New Orleans
In hindsight we should have probably stayed a bit longer in New Orleans, but that’s the thing with a roadtrip. You plan the trip from A to Z and calculate the time in each city so the one you start with might not get enough attention. Anyway, that said; we did try a couple of things and I do have a few recommendations of things you should do and eat while in New Orleans. Of course this is all my personal preference and there is so much more to do that I would recommend checking out the website about New Orleans.
New Orleans road trip stats
Beignets at Cafe du Monde
Is it touristic? Absolutely. Is it a must visit? O yes. You can’t go to New Orleans and not visit Cafe du Monde at least once. It is THE place to go for beignets so naturally the first thing we did after being dropped off by our Uber driver is to sit down and have one portion of beignets for the two of us. Beignets are a bit similar to Dutch doughnuts but lighter (maybe not in calories) and square instead of round.
As with all the things in the US, sharing portions is always a good idea. It gives you more belly space to try out more things and it makes more sense in every way possible. To be honest I am not 100% convinced this is the place for the absolute best beignets but it is an iconic place in itself that can’t be missed.
French market
Close to Cafe du Monde is the French market. We initially went there early in the morning but it is best to go there around lunch time. In the morning everyone is still setting up, it is quiet and you kind of miss the hussle and bustle of a busy market. So later in the day is a better choice.
I was quite surprised to see so many alligator heads for sale for next to nothing. Not that I would suggest bringing home an alligator head, but you could if you wanted to. It looked kind of surreal to me!
As for food, this is a good place to have some local delicacies including beignets, praline, gumbo or jambalaya.
Steamboat Natchez
Quite by accident we ended up on a river cruise on the steamboat Natchez which goes along the Mississippi river. We stumbled upon it while browsing the streets and to be entirely honest, we were a bit jetlagged and the idea of spending a few hours doing nothing in a light breeze seemed liked a great idea.
Steamboat Natchez is the last authentic steamboat apparently and you can have a lunch during the trip and enjoy some live music as well. The trip itself was not very interesting. Yes, they do tell you about the history of the boat and New Orleans which is the fun part, but you float next to mostly industrial type of areas. That said, it was a lovely day with sunshine and we did enjoy the boat tour. The lunch was with local food like jambalaya, corn bread, catfish and bread pudding. Ok-ish.
Streetcar
You won’t be able to miss the streetcar that runs through New Orleans. There are two; a red one and a green one and both have a different route. They continuously run from one end of the city to the other end and it’s a fun way to see a bit of the town. We took the streetcar from the Garden district to one part of the town (forgot the name) and than back again to French Quarter.
It’s quite cheap and a fun way to see a bit more. You can get off at any point as well and hop back on (get a new ticket too though) to go to another part of town. The only confusing thing was the buying of the tickets. We didn’t have enough dollars and apparently there is an app, which didn’t want to work with our Dutch phone numbers so that was annoying. It’s best to pay in cash so make sure you have a few dollars handy to pay the fare.
Muffuletta
One sandwich that is invented in New Orleans is the Muffuletta. I have no idea where that name comes from but the sandwich is invented by an Italian somewhere around 1906 and is a sandwich with multiple layers of provolone, marinated olive salad, ham and salami on Italian bread.
As you can see from the photo above it’s quite a big filling but we’ve seen worse. I ate the sandwich at Napoleon house where you can order a whole, a half or a quarter of the muffuletta. I went with a quarter and couldn’t even finish it (also because I knew there would be dessert after!) So if you’re ordering this sandwich (and it was really good too!) go for the smallest version.
Banana foster at Brennans
After lunch at Napoleon house I had set my eyes on a banana foster. Apparently this dessert is invented by a restaurant called Brennans and that was around the corner, so we went in. Brennans is quite a fancy restaurant and the prices reflect that as well! We asked to have just the dessert and we were seated at the bar. Officially you cannot order a banana foster with just one person. It’s a minimum of two. But Laura doesn’t like banana so they were kind enough to still make it for me.
The photo of the dessert above is absolutely not sexy but they make it live at your table and that is part of the fun. I don’t know how many calories this dessert was but it was melted butter with loads of sugar and rum. It’s flambeed too. And then served with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was very good! And very heavy. So I was in a bit of sugar coma afterwards.
Pralines
Another thing you cannot miss when in New Orleans is pralines. Pralines – or at least the New Orleans version of it – is a bit of a mix between a cookie and chocolate. Hard to explain. If you would be Dutch it is comparable to ‘borstplaat’ but not sure that even exists in English.
You can get them literally everywhere in the city and of course we had to get it at Laura’s candies. 🙂
What to eat in New Orleans
Of course the above is what we managed to eat, but there is so much more. Check out the list below for more delicacies to look out for, also including the ones we did try:
- Gumbo
- Muffuletta – at Napoleon house
- Banana fosters – at Brennans
- Beignets – at Cafe du Monde
- Praline
- Po’boy – sandwich/streetfood. Try at Parkway bakery & tavern
- Red beans and rice
- Crayfish
We would have liked more time so we could have done a swamp tour, a food tour, a ghost tour and so much more! But we did have a lot of fun so stay tuned for our next adventure in Bandera.
