Archives for August 2017

When I started looking for hotels in New Orleans, I started looking, like most people do, in the French Quarter.  I stayed in the French Quarter a couple of years ago and it made everything so convenient. This year, I wanted something different. Amanda had visited in New Orleans last summer, so with both of  us knowing that there were only a few things we wanted to do in the Quarter, I started looking for hotels elsewhere.  I had couple of requirements, while not in the Quarter, it needed to be within walking distance of the Quarter and it had to be something different than a traditional hotel.  Enter The Old No. 77 Hotel and Chandlery on Tchoupitoulas Street in the Warehouse District/Central Business District of New Orleans.

Confession time. I was talking to my friend Chip at Oceans and Lands Travel about this hotel and he highly recommended it, and said that he wanted to stay there the next time he got to New Orleans. It also houses Compere Lapin, the restaurant of Chef Nina Compton , one of my favorite chefs from Top Chef. (More on our dinner there, later) We talked for a bit then I went ahead and booked it. Like an idiot, I forgot to let my bestie travel agent BOOK MY HOTEL.  While all’s well that ends well, I feel guilty that I didn’t let him get the booking. So a piece of advice. When your bestie is a travel agent, let him book the hotel even if it is only for two days!

When you walk into the hotel, you are greeted with a mix of what Amanda called ‘western industrial’ I just called it fabulous. (the following photos are all from the media kit from the hotel)

The second part of the hotel’s name is Chandlery. What the heck is a Chandlery? Well, a chandlery is a warehouse where goods are sold. As this building’s history is that of a warehouse, the Old No. 77 has sells goods made and produced from local artists and entrepreneurs. We wanted to take one of everything home with us, but we refrained.  I really loved seeing a hotel support locally produced goods.  It also honors the history of the building.

I originally booked a king room with Lagniappe, meaning, my rate included parking and a credit to their lobby coffee bar.  When we checked in, they asked if I would rather have a room with two queen beds instead. Yes please!  Upgrade time! Our room was awesome. We were in the Lafayette section, on the third floor in a corner room. Pretend I have photos because yeah, photographer fail! I forgot to take photos because we were so tired that we both collapsed and made a mess of the room. You’ll have to enjoy these photos provided in their press kit  and pretend that I took them.  We had HUGE windows that looked toward the river then the down Tchoupitoulas. Below are some examples of their rooms.

I did take a couple of photos of the view, which was lovely.

 

One thing that did make me laugh and is SO appropriate for New Orleans is the door hangers. Instead of a typical “Do not disturb” sign, we were greeted with this:

The beds were super comfy with Egyptian cotton linens imported from Italy and a pillow menu in case you are picky about your pillows. We just used the standard pillows on the bed and they were some of the most comfortable pillows that I have had in a hotel.  The hotel is pet friendly and has complimentary Wi-Fi should you find the need to work while in New Orleans.  A complete list of amenities can be found here: Signature Amenities

As part of their commitment to embrace local culture, the Old 77 displays and sells local artist’s works throughout the hotel and host an Artist in Residence every July.  I’ll have more information on the Art-o-mat in a later post.

 

While we were in New Orleans, Travel and Leisure Magazine named The Old No 77 Hotel and Chandlery to their list of the Top 15 City Hotels in America, coming in at number thirteen.  Overall our stay was great and I will stay there again–this time remembering to book through Chip!  The only issue that we had was that the room wasn’t as cold as I like, but I like my hotel rooms to be arctic temperatures, (not like a normal person) but giving that our room has massive windows on two sides,faced east, it was July in New Orleans and temperatures reached into the mid 90s every day, I’m not surprised that the air conditioning had trouble keeping up.

One last thing, I wasn’t paid to stay here or asked to write a review, so these are my own thoughts and opinions. For more in depth information, please click on the links, and if you are looking for a fabulous travel planner who LOVES to do custom planning, click on Oceans and Lands Travel Planners.  There is also a link in the sidebar.

Next up, Part 3, our one full day in New Orleans…we go to a zoo. Literally.

 

 

What do you do when your daughter moves home, you both have the summer off before you both return to the classroom and you need a break? You take a road trip to Louisiana with a two day stop in New Orleans, that’s what!  After our trip to TSA Nationals, Amanda and I were both ready for a break. After talking with my husband, we decided that it would be cheaper to drive, spend some time in New Orleans and then drive to central Louisiana to see my parents.  We decided to take Amanda’s Mini Cooper instead of renting a car, and after a little bit of planning…meaning, I set up a hotel and made reservations for dinner one night, off we went the morning of July 9, 2017.  We left ridiculously early in order for us to have most of an afternoon and evening in New Orleans.  Amanda insisted on driving, as it was her car and she’s a little bit of a control freak about who drives her car, and I was totally ok with that.

See…early.

Just outside of Ocala, we made out first Starbucks stop of the day. Iced tea for me and an iced caramel macchiato breve for Amanda. I got to talking with the nice barista while waiting for our drinks and she asked where we were headed, and I told her that we were doing a mother/daughter road trip and she wished us safe travels and gave me a gift card for the next stop. Wasn’t that sweet?

About three hours after we started, give or take ten minutes, we see the sign to head westBy the way, the drive from Tallahassee to Pensacola has to be the most boring stretch of I-10 ever.  When I did this trip last year, I thought I was going to fall asleep during this stretch. There is NOTHING except for rest areas and the occasional off ramp to get gas.

See ya Florida, on to Alabama where we passed this sign. Wonder if I could find some shrimp in Bayou La Battre

So what do you do when you have a 10-ish hour drive? You sing…badly to movie soundtracks, Broadway soundtracks and Spotify…I’m going to warn you…it’s very off key, but we had a great time. 😀

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One of the coolest things on this stretch of I-10 is the George Wallace Tunnel that goes under Mobile Bay.  It’s also where a huge bottleneck happens, so it took a little bit for us to get through it. Amanda was a little freaked out driving through it. I agree, though, if you think too much about exactly where you are, you start to get nervous. And yes, we blew the horn as per tradition.

After one last Starbucks stop and a potty break outside of Biloxi, we drove into some torrential rain just outside of New Orleans, but once we got through Slidell and onto the bridge over Lake Pontchatrain, it was smooth sailing to our hotel.

 

You can see New Orleans in the distance.  The trip wasn’t bad at all. Amanda wouldn’t let me drive, so I just rode along and kept her company. It is a weird experience to be the parent and not do ANY driving, especially on a trip that long, but I teased Amanda and told her that it made up for all the driving I did for her until she went to college! She just pursed her lips at me then laughed.  In the next post, I’ll have a review of our hotel, the Old No. 77 Hotel and Candlery plus some photos from our first evening in New Orleans.