Tag: new orleans

Planning a New Orleans family vacation? Contrary to popular belief, NOLA is loaded with lots of kid friendly activities! This itinerary will outline plenty of things for your kids to do in New Orleans!

This is Day 3 of our kid friendly three day New Orleans itinerary. See Day 1 Activities here and Day 2 Activities here.

Our last day in New Orleans. *sigh*

With any trip, including this one, I like to leave the last day low key and open for the most part so we can cross anything off our list we weren’t able to do yet or to just relax and take in the city.

So that’s what we did! We had one scheduled tour for the day, but it was in the evening, so we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. It was the perfect ending for this trip!

If you haven’t read about our previous two days in NOLA…

For reference, we took our seven year old on this trip. She’s proven herself a fantastic little traveler over and over before. New Orleans is a walking city, so if your kid won’t do well with lots of walking, I don’t suggest making this one of your first family trips. If you are taking kids that are younger or older or taking multiple kids, then modify accordingly.

Adults, don’t worry – there are plenty of things here that will also keep your attention!

New Orleans 3 Day Itinerary

See Day 1 in New Orleans HERE!

See Day 2 in New Orleans HERE!

Day 3 – Free Time & Ghost Tour in the Evening

Sleep in!

This was the first and only day of our trip we didn’t have a morning tour already scheduled. We opted to sleep in and get up and ready at our leisure.

Breakfast at Cafe du Monde

Enjoy those glorious beignets and cafe au lait one more time before you have to leave. I also wouldn’t turn my nose up at you if you went back later in the day for more. 😉

There’s usually a live band playing just outside the cafe so sit back, take it all in and enjoy! Don’t forget to tip them before you leave though – these guys are a huge part of the New Orleans experience.

After breakfast…

As I said, I planned our trip so we had most of this day free to do whatever we wished. I’m going to share how we used our time below. Be sure to read our Day 2 itinerary for more kid friendly things you can take advantage of in New Orleans.

Stroll around Jackson Square

Damn, it’s gorgeous. As I said in our previous day’s itineraries, morning is the best time to take pictures and really breathe in the city. It’s less crowded and cooler too.

The Presbytere

The Presbytere is a museum to the right of St. Louis Cathedral. It has two exhibits – one about Mardi Gras and one about Katrina. The image above is a display you see as soon as you walk in which perfectly grasps the heart of both exhibits.

While the Circus throughly enjoyed the Mardi Gras exhibit, she was also intrigued by the Katrina exhibit. It’s a wonderful exhibit that will pull at your heart and accurately depicts the resilience of New Orleans and its people.

If you look closely at the costume above, you can tell portions are made of blue tarps which were a staple in New Orleans after Katrina.

There are countless costumes in the Mardi Gras exhibit that will leave you in awe.

The Circus loved seeing it all and it only more solidified her stance on her need to come back for Mardi Gras.

Stroll around the French Quarter

We spent a good bit of this day also just strolling around the French Quarter.

I adore the architecture that one can only find in the Quarter.

The courtyards of New Orleans are one of my absolute favorite parts of homes in the area. I’ve decided a courtyard is a future must for me.

Shopping

After lunch, we did a bit more strolling through the quarter and some shopping at the same time. Here are some of our favorite shops to visit in the quarter….

Faulkner House Books

If you’re a book lover, and especially if you’re a Faulkner fan, you must visit Falulkner House Books. Yes, Faulkner did live here at one time. This is a charming little book shop that of course has lots of books centered around New Orleans.

The Mask Company

After discovering Mardi Gras, the kid was intent on finding a mask to take home. I am not a fan of all the cheesy souvenior shops throughout the Quarter, so every time she wanted to go in one for a mask, I would say no, we’ll find a better one and drag her on down the road. We lucked upon the Mask Company just down from Faulkner House books on Pirate’s Alley. It’s a small little shop filled with only masks and the sweet man who runs it. Both she and I bought a mask here.

Southern Candymakers

If you want pralines or anything sweet, hands down, Southern Candymakers is the place to go! Don’t you dare stop at any other candy shop! I promise you won’t regret it! And while you’re there, just go ahead and have them pack up a box of pralines and send to me!

Nola Couture

I mentioned this fantastic little store as well in our day two activities. I wanted to mention it again here because they also have a location in the French Quarter. I adore this store.

Forever New Orleans

This is a fantastic little shop for alll things New Orleans, but not cheesy souvenir type things. I got a pretty little fluer de lis butter spreader here, and a NOLA hat I adore. Forever New Orleans is on Royal Street and there are loads of other stores along Royal as well that you might enjoy perusing.

What’s New Nola

This was a cute little shop filled with more New Orleans related items and also items from local NOLA artisans. I snagged a great little tray from here depicting the French Quarter.

5-in-1 New Orleans Ghost and Mystery Tour

While planning our trip, the Circus had requested a ghost tour. You all know that made me as happy as a clam! We opted to do this 5-in-1 ghost and mystery tour. It covered a little bit of everything – ghosts, voodoo, vampires and more.

This is a walking tour, so if you’re taking kids along, make sure they are prepared. My kiddo had to sit a couple times when we stopped to listen to a story from the tour guide. And although she didn’t see an actual ghost like she wanted to on the tour, she did enjoy it. The tour guide really got her hopes up at one point when he told us all that he “guarantees we’ll see some spirits at our next stop.” Turns out, we were taking a break at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which is a bar. The Circus’ face dropped and was not amused. Her reaction was priceless. 😂

Dinner at Meauxbar

For dinner, we went to Meauxbar in the Quarter – another absolutely delicious restaurant we discovered on this trip!

First off, and I can’t stress this enough, get the duck fat popcorn. It’s exactly what it sounds like – popcorn tossed in duck fat. And it is everything. We all ate that up as fast we could, thus the nearly empty bowl there. As far as entrees, Grunt had the French onion grilled cheese and I had the steak – both were fabulous.

That’s a wrap for this visit to New Orleans – until next time, NOLA!

See the Day 1 New Orleans itinerary here.

See the Day 2 New Orleans itinerary here.

Want to plan another adventure?

Isle of Palms Beach Vacation – our most favorite beach! It’s beautiful and no crowds!

Things to Do in Pigeon Forge – fun family friendly things and of course – Dollywood!

Things to Do in Chattanooga – you’ve never seen the underground waterfall?!

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It’s not all about Mardi Gras in The Big Easy! New Orleans is actually a pretty kid-friendly city! This New Orleans itinerary will show you plenty of things to do in New Orleans with kids!

I have been in love with New Orleans since I was 13.

There is no other city quite like it and every last bit of it has my heart.

If I had it my way, I’d whisk away to The Big Easy at least once every month or so. They do call it The Big Easy for a reason and it just seems like every little worry on my mind melts away when I’m there. Maybe it’s also the abundance of alcohol. I don’t know and I don’t care either way.

Needless to say, I was most definitely the most excited person about our recent family trip to New Orleans. It had been far too long since I’d set foot in my beloved city and I was super pumped to get to introduce the Circus to NOLA.

While there are obviously NOLA things you aren’t going to do with the family when you’re there, say like bar hopping along Bourbon, there are so many more wonderful things here that are family friendly.

And really, to me anyway, New Orleans is so much more than Bourbon Street. In fact, it’s not even near the top of my list of my favorite things to do in the city.

We were able to spend three full days in the city. For our trip, I set down and planned out each day – something I’ve never done before when it’s just me and Grunt. I think creating itineraries when traveling someplace like this with kids is key though. You know your kids best and know when they might need downtime factored in somewhere or how long they may or may not last at a museum. Having a schedule – a flexible one preferably – always a good idea with kids.

Another thing to note specifically about our itinerary: We have one kid and she was seven at the time of this trip. She’s proved herself a great traveler countless times. I knew she could do New Orleans without any problems. I say all that, so you know the factors I considered when planning out our itinerary. Obviously, if you’ve got more than one kiddo and/or younger or older kiddos, you may want to change this up a bit.

And all that being said, this itinerary and most all the things we did in New Orleans this round are things that are great for both kids and adults. Even Grunt Labor said he discovered new things he hadn’t previously.

Family Fun in New Orleans

Where We Stayed

The Troubador

While I adore the French Quarter, we didn’t want to stay there with the kid in tow. If you’ve ever stayed in the Quarter before, you know how noisy it can get at night. I wanted the kid to be able to sleep well each night so she would have enough energy for the next day. Therefore, we went with a hotel in the Central Business District – The Troubador.

The Troubadour is a boutique style hotel, so the decor was gorgeous and there was a touch of NOLA in every room. It was about a 20 minute walk to the French Quarter or an 8-10 minute Uber/cab ride depending on the traffic.

We went with the Troubie room, which was plenty for us. There were two queen size beds and the bathroom was spacious. We also ate at Jayne, the restaurant located inside the hotel, the night we arrived since it was so late, and it was delish! They also have a great rooftop bar that overlooks the city. We didn’t get to enjoy that since we had the kid in tow, but it looked amazing.

Transportation

We flew into New Orleans and took an Uber from the airport to our hotel. We did the same thing when leaving out. Throughout the trip, we walked or took an Uber if our destination was out of walking distance or the weather wasn’t cooperating.

You can of course rent a car if you’d like, but it’s really not all that necessary if you do the things we did or similar ones. Even if you want to go out to River Road to tour a plantation or take a swamp tour, most of those tour companies provide transportation.

New Orleans Kids Activities

On to the fun! We had three full days in New Orleans. I’m going to break each day’s activities down into individual posts to keep from writing a book on our trip. 😆 I’m also going to include the timelines for our days, but of course when you go to plan your own trip, you can change those up to your liking! FYI – New Orleans is on Central Standard Time.

Day 1 – Swamp/Bayou Tour & City Park

7:00 am CST
Wake up and get ready.

7:30 / 7:45am-ish
Breakfast at Cafe du Monde in the French Market.

You can walk or Uber, but either way, one simply cannot go to New Orleans without eating beignets at Cafe du Monde!

The Circus’ exact words were, “Oh my gosh! You guys weren’t kidding about how good these were!”

There’s usually some live jazz going on outside of Cafe du Monde, so be sure to take that in as well!

8:15am CST
Head to the Gray Line Tour Lighthouse Office to take a swamp tour!

On the walk there, enjoy the sights of Jackson Square. It was rainy this first day there, but a rainy day in New Orleans is still better than a sunny day anywhere else! P.S. Early morning is the best time to get pictures around the city – there’s hardly anyone else around blocking your shots!

On your way to the Lighthouse office, you can also walk along the Mississippi River and enjoy the sights there as well…

8:30AM CST
Depart for a Swamp and Bayou Tour.

We did the early bird Swamp and Bayou tour through Gray Line Tours. There are other tour times throughout the day, the early bird just worked best for us. Gray Line will drive you out to where the tour will start, so no need to worry about transportation.

Everyone in my crew really enjoyed the swamp and bayou tour. There weren’t a whole lot of people in our boat, so everyone could get up and move around to see better – and yes, there were alligators!

And did you know they eat marshmallows?

The Circus loved that of course, and all the scenery was just really beautiful.

The boat captain even had his baby alligator on board and while the Circus didn’t care to hold it, Grunt did.

12:30pm CST
Arrive back in the French Quarter from the swamp tour.

12:45pm – 1:45pm CST
Have lunch in the quarter.

We had lunch at Cafe Maspero, which was just about a five minute walk from where the Gray Line bus dropped us off. It was yummy! We highly recommend the Fried Alligator to start with – the Circus loved it as well! Grunt and I split the Roast Beef Po’ Boy and it was great too. It was a great little lunch spot!

2pm CST
Uber or Taxi to City Park.

2:20pm – 5pm CST
Enjoy City Park!

Oh City Park, we love you and there isn’t a kiddo out there who won’t love City Park! City Park is huge and there are lots of things to do here for both adults and kids, but we stuck to the main attraction for kids – Storyland and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park.

Storyland is a playground filled with storybook sculptures.

Kids can go and play on/in these sculptures.

Dads may also find their magic slipper. 😆

Storyland was truly a magical little place – we loved seeing all the classic stories come to life!

We also had lots of fun in the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park which is within the same area as Storyland.

There are 17 rides in the amusement park ranging from little kiddie rides to a roller coaster. The roller coaster is a smaller scale one and the Circus was easily able to meet the height requirements for it.

We all enjoyed the rides here!

Before you leave City Park, you must have a Snoball. Just like with beignets, not having a snoball in New Orleans would be a sin! These at City Park were delish!

5-5:15pm CST
Uber or taxi to dinner.

If you’re eating someplace nearby City Park, obviously you might not need transportation. For dinner on our first night there, we ate at Brennan’s in the French Quarter.

Brennan’s has been on my “eat at” list for a while now. We’d never made it there on any of our other trips to New Orleans, so this time since I was killing it in the trip planning department, I made reservations ahead of time.

Brennan’s is on the higher end when it comes to restaurants. It’s not super fancy – the kid went there wearing what you see in the picture above and I wore what I had on at the park too. Men can’t wear athletic shorts though, so take note. If you’ve got more than one kiddo or younger kids, this might not be a good choice for you. The Circus has been to nice restaurants before, so she knew to be on her best behavior.

I have to say, absolutely every single thing at Brennan’s was wonderful. From the maître d’, to the servers and of course – the food! Everyone was so sweet to the kid. The maître d’ had her go out to the courtyard as soon as we got there so she could see the turtles and then they had a whole conversation about it while we waited on our table.

When one of the servers went to go feed the turtles later, he even stopped at our table to take the kid to feed them too!

And the food! 😋 I had duck, Grunt had rabbit and the Circus had grilled chicken. It was all divine. The Circus ate all of her’s, a good bit of mine too and then asked if I could please add duck to our menu at home! 😆 Keep dreaming, kid. We had the signature dessert here as well – Bananas Foster. Brennan’s is the original creator of the dish!

After dinner, everyone was pretty tired, so we walked back to the hotel and called it a day. What a day it was though. 💜

Day Two New Orleans Itinerary HERE!
Day Three New Orleans Itinerary HERE!

Are you planning to visit New Orleans soon?

Looking for more ideas for your next adventure?

Must Do’s in New Orleans – other things to get into in The Big Easy.

Our New York and Boston Trip – with the kid in tow!

The Whistle Stop Cafe and More – yep, a Fried Green Tomatoes road trip!

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