plantations

Can someone tell me the easiest way without a car to get to the plantation tours? Also wondering if you have tips on inexpensive restaurants and bars. Thanks for any info you can give me. First trip to NOLA

plantations

There are several tour companies that will pick you up at your hotel, either a bus or a van. Some will take you to several in 3 days, say 3. I did not do it this way. The plantation we went to was Oak Alley, which was stunning outside, but the guide wasn%26#39;t that knowledgable. For actual educational experiences go to Laura or Evergreen, I understand.

Two recommendations I can make on inexpensive restaurants is Luizzas by the Track, up at the bottom of City Park and St. John%26#39;s Bayou (get the barbacued shrimp po-boy), and Frankie and Johnny%26#39;s, out to the west off of Magazine St. Both are accessible by streetcar with a little walk.

If you like live music, you should get to the Frenchman St. area. Good music, and there are some cheaper bars there. And it%26#39;s nice to just walk around and talk to people there. A nice vibe

plantations

You see a lot of 3 for 1 and there are many lesser priced places for food also..such as Johnny%26#39;s Po-boys, Coops, Clover Grill, Mena%26#39;s, many pizza places, etc. Use the search feature here on trip advisor and you will have a wealth of information from recent postings.

To get to the plantations, pick any tour company like Tours by Isabelle, for example. It really doesn%26#39;t matter what company you choose because the plantations use their own guides. Definitely stop by Laura Plantation though! http://www.toursbyisabelle.com/

Thanks everyone for your help! Would appreciate any info for a first time visitor.

Hi,

Are you sure you couldn%26#39;t drive to the plantations? My husband and I booked a tour which was meant to take us to Laura and Oak plantations. Unfortunately, they failed to turn up to collect us. (I can%26#39;t recall the name of the tour company, but apparently it wasn%26#39;t worth the trip for just 2 people).

Anyway, as we couldn%26#39;t decide between the 2 plantations, we ended up hiring a car the next day and equipped with a GPS drove to both Laura and Oak. The drive was really easy (even for us Aussies) and if we had had more time we would have loved to go on and see more plantations.

If you really can%26#39;t manage the drive and can%26#39;t be certain that the tour company will actually honour the booking for 2 plantations, I would recommend Laura over Oak. The tour was really entertaining and provided a real insight into the lives of the slaves and their owners.

Oak plantation is certainly impressive, particularly the row of oak trees but I thought that the tour was less entertaining and airbrushed the integral role and plight of the slaves.

Bear in mind that the actual tours of the plantations run continuously and seemed to be completely independent of how you get to the plantations, that is, by a bus trip or by car.

It was also our first trip to NOLA. We loved it and hope to get back in the future.

We went on a walking cemetery tour which was great and a Bayou tour (Honey Island) which was also really good. We also did the Post Katrina tour which was interesting and worth doing (albeit a bit depressing).

Hope this helps.

Be sure to do some research on this forum. Nearly every question has been asked and there are some great suggestions posted by both visitors and locals.

Thanks so much for your help. Where did you rent the car with gps? Was it real expensive?

I can%26#39;t remember the name of the car rental company, but we stayed at the Ritz Carlton and it was in the same road as the hotel, just a few blocks down. Sorry, I don%26#39;t remember how much it was, but it was very reasonable and certainly cheaper than the tour. Hope this very vague reply helps

we just rented a car for a couple of days to do swamp and plantation tours. Got it from Avis on Canal, cost us 拢40 for 2 days, GPS was an additional $14 per day.

I guess we will just get a car for a day then. Thank-you all!!!