Finally! Over 12 months after our wedding, my wife and I went on our honeymoon. A bit of background to this- Although we got married in September 2017, due to my nurse training we were unable to go on honeymoon straightaway like most newlyweds do. So, in May 2018, we were finally able to book our honeymoon to New Orleans.

When we told people, who didn’t know us too well they’d ask “why New Orleans?” We always had the same response, The New Orleans Saints. Having been your standard nocturnal teenager, on February 7th 2010 I lay in bed channel hopping when I came across the Superbowl and decided to give it a watch. Although I didn’t have much of a clue what was happening I fell in love with the sport and the winners, watching this team play, the fans in the crowd and afterwards finding out what it meant to the city of New Orleans. Fast-forward 8 years and I’ve brought my wife into the lifestyle that is a Saints fan. There was only one place we were going for our honeymoon.

We cannot recommend British Airways enough! From even before we booked our holiday they were amazing with us. We saw the hotel we wanted to book and the flights we wanted to be on, for some reason, I decided not to book online and instead I would call them to book. I spoke to a lady who was superb. She had been to New Orleans herself and began to give us some tips and advice on how to get as much out of the city as possible, suddenly she stopped and said that she had found a higher rated hotel (International House Hotel), in a better location for cheaper and we get an extra night! No one would turn that down.

I’m not going to list each activity, day-by-day, count-for-count but I just wanted to go through the highlights to us. Other than essays and dissertations, I’ve never written anything down. I suppose (at the risk of sounding like a complete douche) you could call this a travel blog?

We arrived late the first night so went straight to bed. The lady from British Airways had told the hotel that we were on honeymoon and the staff upgraded our room to a deluxe! Everyone that worked at International House couldn’t do enough to help us. Again, I won’t go into the boring details but all I’ll say is they were always friendly and always happy to help. (Special shout-out to the doormen who always went above and beyond).

I’ve seen so many reviews, stories, videos etc about Bourbon Street but I don’t think anything could prepare me for that kind of atmosphere. This was a Saturday so it was a bit busier than the weekdays we were there. After walking around the French Quarter, Jackson Square and Armstrong Park doing nothing but sightseeing we found Voodoo Lounge and stopped there for a few drinks. Being a visiting Saints fan, I drank Port Orleans (Retired Saints OT Zach Strief’s brewing company) and loved it, although I was disappointed at the lack of Port Orleans drinks in bars, I thought it would be everywhere. My wife drank Gin and Tonic which turned out to be a mistake for her, turns out American’s (well at least in New Orleans) single is about a UK triple. We left Voodoo Lounge and headed for Bourbon Street, 2 bars later and I had to carry my wife back to the hotel by 6pm. I was drunk too and had a blast laughing at her trying to get people to join in her dancing.

On a calmer night we headed back to Bourbon Street and visited Café Beignet, this easily became a highlight of the holiday. This place has amazing music, an outstanding atmosphere and most importantly great food and Hurricanes (The famous New Orleans cocktail). I ordered the Jambalaya which I’ll come onto later, remember this isn’t in an order than the order it’s coming into my head, and my wife ordered the Gumbo which she scoffed down in no time.

We spent a lot of our time in Jackson Square, toward the end of the holiday we had breakfast in Café Pontalba which was great, nice food and nice staff. But there’s one eatery in Jackson Square that takes the medal in most people’s books and the reason a lot of people visit the area, Café Du Monde. I’m not sure what I can say about this place that hasn’t been said, it was outstanding! This was the first place we tried a beignet and we loved it, however I wouldn’t recommend wearing dark colours though as icing sugar goes everywhere! There is no avoiding this, they use soooo much (Having a sweet tooth I’m not complaining at all).

Being big fans of Gordon Ramsey, we had to visit The Old Coffee Pot (as seen on 24 hours to Hell and Back). This was a bit nerve-racking when ordering because all I could think of is the dead mouse found in their toaster, but I’m glad I didn’t let that image take over because although one or two members of staff were……not rude but not welcoming, the restaurant was very clean. This is where we tried a fried shrimp Po’Boy, I’m not a great lover of seafood but this is the thing that changed my mind and turned me into a seafood-freak in New Orleans. They served a huge portion that both my wife and myself couldn’t finish (not for lack of trying).

The next New Orleans food I fell in love with was Jambalaya. We first tasted this on the steamboat Natchez, another activity I highly recommend. As soon as the boat sets off you have a guided tour of the Mississippi River, with information given on the surrounding areas such as, the Domino Sugar refinery and the lower ninth ward- one of the worst hit areas during the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina. We paid a little bit extra ($12 each) for food on the Natchez. Given this food is mass cooked and left in warming trays it was surprisingly good, we had the Creole Jambalaya, southern fried fish (I’m not sure what fish it was- as stated previously, I’ve never been a big seafood lover) and Andouille Sausage. After two helpings of the Jambalaya and Sausage I was stuffed and couldn’t squeeze in the desserts they had on offer.

As far as I’m aware, Hurricane Katrina and the following floods are the earliest natural disaster I can remember (I’m currently 25) so I’ve always held an interest in it, in the weeks leading up to our holiday I told my wife I’d like to go on a Katrina Tour because I wanted to see for myself the effect it is still having in certain parts of this city. The tour agent (is that what they’re called?) recommended the City Tour, this was guided tour in a minibus that took us around the French Quarter, Orleans Levee District (This is where a lot of Katrina talk goes on), City Park where we got out for (more) beignets and coffee, the Garden District and we got out to visit a cemetery (drivers’ choice of cemetery). Other than the Saints game and seeing Drew Brees break the passing yards record WHO DAT! This was the highlight of our holiday, we learnt so much about the city and got to do it from an air-conditioned van with a very knowledgeable tour guide, Richard.

One thing my wife asked if we could do is a plantation tour, this didn’t take my fancy but I’m happy if she’s happy so I agreed. We decided to go to Oak Alley Plantation, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would but I enjoyed the bus ride out to the plantation than the tour itself. Our tour guide for the bus ride was a lady named Joanne, she had an amazing attitude, was exceptionally passionate about her city and again, very knowledgeable.

For the Natchez, Plantation and City Tour we visited ‘Adventures in New Orleans’ a small building at the bottom of Canal Street. The staff here were very helpful and friendly, when (not if) we visit this outstanding city again we would definitely use these to book things we didn’t have chance to do this time around.

I’m going on a bit now so I’m going to cut myself off here with a few honourable mentions-

Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World- There’s a free shuttle that goes from the Marriott on Canal Street and is well worth this visit to learn about this New Orleans tradition.

Audubon Aquarium and Zoo- You can get tickets that include the Butterfly and Insectarium but for us, we only want to do the zoo and aquarium. Both were a fantastic experience and again, we would definitely visit these again during our next visit.

Walk Ons- I know there are loads of these across the south but this was our first and we loved it. They had the football on (Cowboys @ Texans) and the Baseball on. The food was good old sports food- Wings and Burgers etc.

Jazz- Nearly everywhere we visited had live Jazz music playing. I’ve never been into Jazz (neither loved it or hated it) Since being home all I’ve listened to on Spotify is a playlistt simply named New Orleans Jazz.

Anyway, thank you for reading

WHO DAT!