Four Days in New Orleans: Beignets, Bourbon, and the Bayou

New Orleans has such a unique beauty to it with a blending of French, Creole, Spanish, African, and American culture and such history at every corner. I’m going to get straight to my list of favorites for the city: must-sees, must do’s to experience the city, and my favorite restaurants and bars. Keep reading to learn more about what we did in New Orleans for the four days!

My top must-sees in New Orleans:

Jackson Square with St Louis Cathedral
French Market
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1
Cafe Beignet and Cafe du Monde (try each and compare! I actually prefer Cafe Beignet but Cafe du Monde is a historic must visit)
Frenchmen Street at night for jazz clubs
Bourbon Street for Lafitte’s

My recommended to-do’s:

Eat a beignet…eat multiple beignets during your stay. Wash it down with a cafe au lait.
Walk it off by taking a walking tour of the French Quarter, learning about the history and legends of the city
Watch live jazz music on Frenchmen Street
Visit a voodoo shop
Take a drive or book a tour to visit the plantations right outside the city such as Laura and Oak Alley
Wander the streets of the French Quarter and take in the colors and the beautiful architecture
Visit Lafayette cemetery and the Garden district
Visit Jackson Square in the morning and take in the sights and sounds of the live music and local artists

My favorite restaurants and bars in New Orleans:

Three Muses on Frenchmen Street-Amazing Cocktails and Small Plates-Really really great food! See more on what we ate there below.
Sylvain on Chartres Street-Beautiful outdoor dining-Order the “Chick-Syl-vain” Sandwich-so good!
Pat O’Briens-Get the Strawberry Daiquiri, probably the best I’ve ever had.
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar on Bourbon Street-this bar dates back to the early 1700’s and has a history rooted in piracy and smuggling operations according to some legends. It is believed that Jean Lafitte , a French pirate, used this place originally as a safe haven for transfer of smuggled goods. The ambience of this place is really cool, makes you feel like you’ve been transported through time. This is definitely a must visit!
The Spotted Cat Music Club on Frenchmen Street- They had the best live jazz music that we heard during our trip! It gets really packed in there so its worth going early before dinner to get a good spot.
Market Cafe– They have the best cajun wings! They were to die for!

I recently visited New Orleans for my sister’s 21st birthday. I had been there previously for work but didn’t get to see much of the city so I was excited to visit again and get to explore this time. We stayed for a long weekend, arriving Friday morning and leaving Monday around 5pm. We stayed right in the French Quarter at Hotel St Pierre, a hotel housed in three cottages from the 1700s. The hotel has a lot of great character and within five minutes walking distance to Bourbon Street and ten minutes to Jackson Square. It’s a great location for walking around the French Quarter but is enough space away from Bourbon Street so you can actually sleep at night.

Day One- Beignets and Exploring the French Quarter

The first thing my mom and I did was head straight to find some beignets while waiting for my sisters’ flight to arrive. We went to Cafe Beignet and it was so adorable! I loved the brick inside and the beautiful tile floors. We ordered some coffee and beignets and they were so delicious.

Later that day we all went on a walking tour in the French Quarter starting in Jackson Square. This was through Free Tours by Foot and I highly recommend it! I’ve been on a few of these in other cities around the world such as in Barcelona but this is the first one I’ve done in the US. If you haven’t done one of these before, they’re pretty awesome to get the lay of the land when you’re unfamiliar with a city. The tour is also “free” which means there’s no set price but everyone pays what you can or what you think the tour was worth to you. Our tour guide was really awesome and took us through a two hour walking tour through the French Quarter giving us all the history and legends behind the city.

I learned a lot on the tour about the melting pot of French, Creole, African, Spanish, and American cultures which make New Orleans such a unique and beautiful place in the US. There is also a really intriguing grittiness to the city, tales of pirates, ghosts, voodoo, murder, vampires, and more that really draws people in. There are also several other walking tours in the city that focus on specific topics such as voodoo and ghosts if you’re interested in the paranormal, arts and music, and even a cocktail tour. There’s something for everyone!

Day Two-Lafayette Cemetery and Jazz on Frenchmen Street

The next day we did some more walking around the French Quarter and did some souvenir shopping and taking in the neighborhood. Then we signed up for a tour of the Lafayette Cemetery and Garden District. We tried taking the street car over there but like tourists couldn’t figure out where to pick it up! So we ended up giving up and taking a Lyft over. The tour through the cemetery was ok, the history was very intriguing and it was cool learning about which shows and movies have filmed there over the years but it did seem to run a little too long. Or rather we might have just been tired from the previous walking tour we did the day before. I highly recommend visiting this cemetery though because it is really beautiful in a dark and twisted way, not to mention that you’ll recognize many of its sites from scenes in The Originals, Interview with a Vampire, NCIS New Orleans, American Horror Story, and more. The tour then went through the streets of the Garden District where we were able to learn the history of some of the large mansions there and the people that once lived there. We also saw Sandra Bullock’s house which was pretty cool. Then we ended up leaving the tour early because we were super exhausted and it started raining a little bit. We headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner.

That evening we went to Frenchmen Street and went to The Spotted Cat Music Club for a drink and some music before dinner. The band here was amazing! We would have stayed longer if we didn’t have a reservation for dinner. After being there for about half an hour we walked over to Three Muses for dinner and it was probably the best meal we had while there! I’m always skeptical of places when they say “small plates” because let’s face it I was starving and wanted to eat a huge plate of food lol But my eyes are always bigger than my stomach. Between my mom, myself, and my two sisters we ordered about 5 small plates, we got the Three Muses fries (so good with feta on top!), Mac & cheese, salad, fish tacos (for my sisters), the beer-braised Korobuta pork belly (so delicious!) and the best thing of all their bacon-wrapped bleu cheese stuffed dates. Those dates were like dessert they were so so good! I’d go back to New Orleans just for those dates. We also got some amazing cocktails there like the The Muse, their signature cocktail with cucumber infused Hendrick’s gin, St. Germain, and blueberry. I highly recommend a stop here during your trip to Nola! It also has live music and is next door to some great jazz spots.

Day Three-Bayou, Plantations, and Bourbon Street

On Sunday we did the full day Plantation and Bayou Swamp Tour. You would think we were all toured out at this point! We were. But it was on my list to see the plantations. In hindsight we should have just did a shorter tour or rented a car out there. It took about an hour for the tour to drive out there which was fine but we were stuck in a van with about six other people and of course since we were picked up last we had to sick in the very back and I got pretty bad motion sickness. The tour overall was really good and I enjoyed seeing the bayou and the plantations were gorgeous. However, I wish someone would have told us out of towners there was no chance we would see an alligator. They did just have a major freeze and uncommonly cold temps a few days before which thawed out by the time we got there but I guess the alligators were still in hiding. I just wish I didn’t get my hopes up of seeing one when we booked the tour as it wasn’t cheap. I probably would have skipped that and just did the plantations and came back during the summer for a bayou tour.

Sunday night we got dinner at Sylvains. We happened across the restaurant because our first and second choices didn’t work out but we’re glad we ended up here! The restaurant was pretty booked up but they happened to have a table in their courtyard in the back. It was a little chilly that night but they had space heaters that kept us warm. It was a perfect location for a dinner outside. Their cocktails are so good! I got their Bang for the Buck, a ginger and lemon whiskey cocktail and an Alexander Hamilton, a pomegranate apple brandy cocktail. For food I had their chicken sandwich and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. I highly recommend this place, especially when it’s nice out, ask for a table in the courtyard!

After dinner we went to a couple bars including Lafitte’s, the pirate bar on bourbon street, and Pat O’Briens for their strawberry daiquiri.

Day Four-Cafe du Monde, Jackson Square, and French Market

On Monday my sisters left earlier for their flights back to Detroit. My mom and I had some more time to explore as our flights weren’t until 5 that day. We walked to Cafe du Monde and got coffee and beignets for breakfast around 8am. It wasn’t too busy then but it also was a week day. We considered going the day before around 2pm but the line was all the way down the street. I recommend going on a week day if you can or at least going super early as they’re open 24 hours with their take out window. After we ate, we walked around Jackson Square, did a little more souvenir shopping. I got this beautiful print of Jackson Square to bring home and frame and I also got my husband some alligator jerky and a cool Lafitte’s tshirt. We then went into St Louis cathedral and its so gorgeous inside.

Afterwards we walked down to the French Market and I wish we had been there sooner! If you’re looking for any souvenirs, this is the place to go as it seemed to go on for miles! They have everything and anything you can imagine from smoothies, food, alligator jerky, handmade soups, art, jewelry, voodoo dolls, shirts, hats, and more. Their prices are also really good compared to the other stores around town. After shopping we went to the Market Cafe for some food, we shared the cajun chicken wings and they were probably the best I’ve ever had. That place is great because it has live music and is perfect for grabbing a drink and some food and eating outside. We then walked around some more and checked out some witchcraft shops because while in Rome!

Overall, we had a really great time there celebrating my baby sister turning 21! I can’t wait to go back to New Orleans and explore more of the city. It really is a gorgeous city rooted in so much history and a unique blend of culture. New Orleans is a great place to visit if you’re not looking to spend the money to travel to Europe but still want that European feel to it. There’s so much more to the city than the stereotypes of drunkedness and rowdiness associated with Bourbon Street. Especially while in the French Quarter it doesn’t always feel like you’re in the US because they’ve done such a great job of preserving the look and feel of the historic buildings and the streets. And only in New Orleans can you eat at a French cafe while listening to jazz music while sitting alongside Spanish and French architecture while watching someone tell fortunes, nearby the statue of Andrew Jackson.

This is based on my experience in the city but feel free to leave comments if you recommend any other places I check out next time I’m there! See my instagram @thebeautyventure or the gallery below for more pictures from the trip!