My Inexpensive Trip to New Orleans: Day One

On August first my Dad, boyfriend, and I rented a car and drove from Connecticut to New Orleans, Louisiana.  It was almost a twenty two hour drive, and with constant stops, we made it in two days.  And what was the first thing we did once we arrived in New Orleans?  We got coffee, at one of the most famous coffee shops in Louisiana.

Café Du Monde is a must if you find yourself in the French Quarter.  Located on 800 Decatur Street, this coffee shop had the best frozen café au lait.  My boyfriend and I were fighting over it because he played it safe and just got a coffee.  The frozen café au lait was like a blended coffee drink, with the consistency of a Dunkin Donuts coolatta, but the comparisons end there because it was so much richer and better than a coolatta.  And of course with our coffee we had to order a round of beignets, since Café Du Monde is famous for their New Orleans's doughnuts.

The café was packed.  We weren't sure if we were going to get a seat, so I had the idea of splitting up and trying to find a table that way, to increase our odds.  This plan worked and I got a table, it was dirty, but we found someone who worked there and they were so nice and more than happy to clean, set the table for us, and take our order.  The girl who cleared our table was so fast and so sweet.  Our first New Orleans experience was a hit, but now we had to find a hotel to stay for the next three days.

We stayed at a boutique hotel called, Place d'Armes, and I would definitely stay here again.  Not only was this hotel clean and beautiful, but we also locked in for only $79 dollars a night, and $34 dollars a day to park our rental car.  This was significantly less expensive than some of the other online deals we saw on Expedia.

  My boyfriend took this picture of me in the courtyard of our hotel.  I think I was talking or something!  haha  But the hotel really was so lovely, everything about it was perfect.

After settling into our hotel we decided to go out and explore a little.  Our hotel was right in the middle of the French Quarter around everything from restaurants and local stores to bars and voodoo shops, we stayed in the perfect location.  Even walking distance to the Mississippi River and some parks.

While walking around we stopped at Central Grocery to grab a famous Mufeletta sandwich.  The grocery was busy, but they have places to sit and luckily we found three seats at one of the bars so we could all sit together.
Our sandwiches were huge, bigger than a personal pizza, but they weren't as thick as they look in online pictures.  They were still awesome though, and very filling. 
My boyfriend and I split one.  I wasn't too hungry at the time so I only had one slice of the sandwich.  Jake and my Dad brought leftovers back to the hotel, none of us could finish an entire Mufeletta in one sitting.

We continued walking around and did a lot of shopping.  We stayed out until about eleven at night just taking in the city and trying to check everything out.  And even though we were restless from sitting in a car for two days straight we were also tired.  So we called it a night, returned to our hotel, and got up early to spend our first full day in New Orleans in the morning.