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Hotel Class: 
3 Stars - 100 Opinions
345 St. Joseph Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70130, United States
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of people enjoy staying here
100 Opinions
Jackson Square
big house at Oak Alley Plantation
Lafayette Cemetery #1
Garden District Book Shop
hi -
thinking about taking amtrak to new orleans for a long weekend later
in the year with my wife and 4 year-old twins.
looks like there are hotels within walking distance of the train station.
i assume i wouldn't need to rent a car. how is the neighborhood around the train station?
sounds like there is a children's museum nearby.
anything else i should know?
thanks in advance for any tips!
When I saw your post, I realized that I had no idea where the Amtrak station was...so I looked it up...it's in the warehouse district near the Arena. What's the area like? Well, it's a warehouse district ;-)
The consolation is that it's relatively near the National WW II Museum complex and the Convention Center, which means there are lots of hotels nearby. We stayed in the Residence Inn New Orleans Convention Center (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/msyri-residence-inn-new-orleans-convention-center/) in March. The place was nice. We walked to/from the WW II Museum, but drove over to the Quarter (there were a lot of us, so I ran a taxi service - having lived in Rome and having driven in the Quarter before, it doesn't bother me).
However, you are correct that you don't need a car...but you will need taxis. First, to go to one of the hotels like the Residence Inn, even if it's a few blocks, with luggage and 4-year-olds, you will want to taxi. It's not so much that you would be unsafe so much as you would feel really out of place walking along warehouses on the way. I can't speak to hotels closer to the station (the Residence Inn appears to be only 7 or so short blocks away), but I wouldn't think the station area would be a place that a tourist family would normally walk around in.
But from this area, it's easy to take a taxi for the short ride over to the Quarter - in the daytime, the kids would probably enjoy the sights and people near Jackson Square - or to other places (sorry, didn't know there was a children's museum). Depending on if the kids are interested in that sort of thing, they might enjoy some of the large pieces of equipment (a tank, some airplanes, boats) at the WW II Museum, but I think they may get bored with all the fine print in the bulk of the Museum (I have photos of German landmines, since that's much of what my father did it Europe - find/dig up/detonate landmines).
The warehouse district is obviously being gentrified - it seems that there is a lot of evening traffic from clubs that are moving in - so it's not the total wasteland it used to be...but not the sort of neighborhood you walk around in much (but to the WWII Museum is not bad at all)...
Bill
Marie Laveauýs House of Voodoo-
714 Bourbon Street NO, LA 70119
Enter if you dare- This shop is rife with otherwordly gags and gifts. Inside you will learn the interesting religious history of the area and voodoo culture.
http://www.bloodymarystours.com/marielaveaus.html
Visit the Riverwalk Mall. On the Mississippi River at Poydras, Canal and Julia Streets. Open Monday-Saturday 10AM-9PM and Sunday 11AM-7PM. Restaurants, bars and cafes may open early and close late. For more information, call 504-522-1555. The next day I met a very dear and great friend Daphne for lunch. June and I joined Darrell, her husband, and their two adorable kids in this restaurant in the RiverWalk Mall, one of my favorite malls in the world. We had a great time and afterwards we walked around and window-shopped. We even got to see fudge being made. Interactive style. Everybody say “OOOH FUDGE”. I can’t believe I didn’t buy much at all. We did take some great pictures though. My friend Daphne was teaching her son to be a photographer, the smart way. Don’t put film in the camera. Why waste film in the early stages of his development? I would not have thought of that. The wisdom one gains as a parent. Thanks for the tip Daph!!
If I weren't sick while I was visiting, I'm sure I wouldn't remember much at all given the fact that there was so much beer to drink and, well, even more people to drink it. YOU MUST obviously go to the French Quarter and walk down Bourbon Street a few dozen times. so many memories, where to begin??? Well every time I think of being on bourbon street, I close my eyes and drown myself in surrounding live music, everything from blues to rock and roll to zydeco to jazz. Next, all I can see is, wait a minute, I think I see even more cleavage. I saw so much chick breast that night that I almost felt like I wanted to get away from that scene...8 hours of staring at beautiful girls flaunting what their mama gave them...but I never got tired of it.
Visit Bourbon Street! But that's only the beginning, there's so much to see and do. One of the most interesting things we did was to take a Cemetery Tour. Kind of creepy and lots of fun if you have a good tour guide.
All around the French Quarter, you will see these things in the sidewalk in front of buildings. These are termite feeders. Apparently, the termite problem has gotten so bad, that buildings were actually starting to collapse. In order to preserve the French Quarter, these termite feeders were installed a couple of years ago, to try and draw the termites out of the buildings by providing better tasting food, which will then sterilize them so they can not reproduce.
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Address: 345 St. Joseph Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70130, United States
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