I stayed at the Place d’Armes which is a quaint, small hotel (about 80 rooms) in the French quarter and loved it. We had a delightful triple room in the slave quarters. It’s very reasonably priced in the summer, but the rates may be higher in October. I have friends who’ve stayed at its two sister hotels — Hotel St. Marie (slightly larger) and Prince Conti (slightly smaller) with similar good reviews. You can check out rates, etc. at Frenchquarter.com

I’ve enjoyed wonderful meals at Brousards and Antoines (both in or near the French quarter). Antoines is a little "touristee" due to its fame from "Dinner at Antoines" and being the supposed home of some fancy desert. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in N’arlens, but I believe both restaurants will be EXTREMELY expensive, and you might need reservations. If you can afford it I’d definitely recommend Brousards, although Antoines has its own special charm and wonderful food, too.

Unless you have the bad luck of hitting a major rain storm, the weather in late October will probably be great. It may be slightly dreary in terms of cloudy/misty/rainy but chilly is unlikely. I’d guess an either/or — either wonderful/or pouring rain.

Thanks Oldlady. This is really helpful. It looks like we’re really going to go. I might have some more questions for you once we get into the planning a little more.

Jambalaya here I come!

I think it’s better not to visit New Orleans for the next few months

Traveller Justine Shapiro stayed at this pretty decent fairly-priced hotel close to the Mardi Gras street.

quote:
Traveller Justine Shapiro stayed at this pretty decent fairly-priced hotel close to the Mardi Gras street.

I was considering New Orleans for Christmas… You wanna come to Costa Rica with me???

Hey I noticed you caught my post regarding my plans this Winter. Yeah, you wanna hit Costa Rica together? Follow up on this please =)

New Orleans will be off-limits, and a ghost town for many, many months…

According to this daily ‘zine called "24 hours" (http://www.24hrs.ca) we get here in Vancouver, it reads here in the the Sept. 9 issue on the left-hand side column pg. 4,

"SCHOOL RELIEF: Victims of hurricane Katrina can continue their studies in B.C., even in their schools are closed. Kwantlen University College said it would accept students enrolled in the hurricane-hit states, and find classes for them."

That’s pretty sweet, eh?

I fucking went to Kwantlen for one year and I had a fucking bitch of a time getting classes (or even a parking space at that sad fucking school)……..if they can’t find room for me I’d like to see them find room for some gumbo eaten cajun hillbilly.