DH and I are traveling during Spring Break next month with some friends to New Orleans! Despite visiting most place in the US, we've never been! Any suggestions on where to stay to get the best experience and what to visit? We're staying for 3 nights I believe and we love food and fun excursions! We live in Texas, so we will be driving and have a car to use 
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I really preferred Frenchmen Street to Bourbon Street for nightlife during my visit. During the day, we spent a lot of time wandering around different neighborhoods (Faubourg Marigny, Garden District, Treme, etc), checking out the cemeteries, shopping on Royal St, and EATING. There is so much delicious food everywhere! We also really enjoyed our visit to NOMA.
ETA: We had a car but rarely used it. It was easier to walk or take public transit than worry about parking.
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we went a few years ago and had a blast...
Activities: check out freewalkingtours.com we had a really great experience with a garden district tour, Preservation Hall for great live jazz shows
Food: Commander's Palace - for upscale gourmet dining (we did brunch) Felix's (crawfish) must try - praline ice cream, Cafe Du Monde (beingets) Po'boys
Heard good things about their zoo too but we didnt make it over there.
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We usually stay in the French Quarter.
Go visit the Marigny and Garden District. Go to Stanley's in Jackson Square for breakfast. Cafe du Monde of course for beignets! Coop's in the Quarter has really good Cajun food. Get a Pimm's Cup from the famous Napoleon House...and get it to go so you can walk around the Quarter.
See if there are any music festivals happening when you're there.
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@mrschickpea: Galatoire's for lunch/dinner (dress code: business casual for lunch, and jacket for dinner), and Mother's for breakfast (and go early!).
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I live in New Orleans. Here are my recommendations (location in parentheses):
Food/Upscale -
August (CBD)
Commander's Palace (Uptown)
Sac-a-Lait (Warehouse)
Herbsaint (Warehouse)
Cochon (Warehouse)Can't overstate this - MAKE RESERVATIONS, the good restaurants get booked up quick.
Food/Casual -
Cochon Butcher (Warehouse)
Domlisles - best po boy in the city (Uptown)
Port of Call - amazing cheeseburgers/atmosphere (Frenchmen)
Surrey's (Uptown) - brunch
Stanley (French Quarter) - breakfast/brunchFor the most part, the only bad food you might have is in the heart of the Quarter.
Hotels -
Montelone (French Quarter)
Really anywhere in the Quarter is probably fineBars/Nightlife -
dba (Frenchmen)
Carousel bar (it spins) (French Quarter)
Cat's Meow - hilarious karoke (Bourbon)
Swizzle Stick Bar at Café Adelaid (CBD)
Just walk down Bourbon and pop into places - they're all fun
Oak (Uptown)
Maple Leaf - great bands/old bar (Uptown)Sightseeing-
The D-Day Museum (Warehouse) - can't speak enough about how wonderful it is. You could spend a whole day there.If you go to Café Du Monde (not a personal fave but I get it's a thing), go early morning. Crowds are truly awful and it's not worth waiting an hour or two for donuts and sub-par coffee.
Here's a guide if there are any festivals when you're in town - http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/festivals/festivals.html
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We've stayed at(and we're happy with) the Dauphin Orleans in the French Quarter.
Favorite restaurants:
August (upscale dining)
Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee
Camelia Grill for burgers and lunch
Mothers for brunchETA: we did a ghost/haunted history walking tour which was fantastic and heavy on the history
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I went to college in NOLA. Camellia Grill is my favorite restaurant, but there's often a line. It's super casual, though. Agree with PP about Mother's for breakfast/brunch. I also really like The Gumbo Shop.
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New Orleans is such a fun and easy trip when you live in Texas! We've been a couple times over the past year and loved it.
In terms of where to stay, we stayed one time in the middle of the French Quarter at Hotel Mazarin. It's fun to be right there in the French Quarter, but it was a bit crowded and loud for me. I actually preferred the second hotel we stayed at, which was Le Pavillon. It's outside the French Quarter, so a bit quieter, but walking distance. Plus, it's an old, historic hotel so it's pretty ornate and old-fashioned looking. They have this tradition every evening where they put out hot chocolate and PBJ sandwiches in the late evening, which is pretty funny.
Food-wise, GW Fins has delicious seafood and Peche Seafood Grille was amazing. Also, as PPs have said, Commander's Palace is great, especially the jazz brunch on Sat and Sun. Then you'll be in the Garden District, which I might even like walking through better than the French Quarter -- all beautiful, historic mansions. You can take official tours with a guide, but I prefer to just do a self-guided tour and move at my own pace. This is a good one that you can follow along with: http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/self-guided-garden-district/
Last things -- definitely get beignets at Cafe Du Monde. The line can look kind of crazy, but it moves fast, and they are so worth it! Also, there's a really fun bar in the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter called the Carousel Bar that has an actual moving carousel in it. It gets pretty full, so I'd recommend going on the earlier side, maybe even for pre-dinner cocktails (I'm sure they can make something lovely and non-alcoholic, too
). And this is sort of a wildcard suggestion, but for lunch there's an amazing hot dog place called Dat Dog. So good! (I know hot dogs aren't like the number one food to eat while pregnant, but everything in moderation, right? And these are *fancy* hot dogs, haha).
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Thanks so much for the recommendations ladies! So helpful, I'm taking notes
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I'm also not a fan of Cafe Du Monde. I liked Cafe Beigneit better! Try their Chickory coffee. Yum!
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