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New Orleans Pictures & Tips for a Great Staycation

  May 12

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new orleans staycationSince many of you will be traveling to FinCon in New Orleans this year, I thought it would be fun to re-publish this post of yore that has some French Quarter pictures in it!

As many of you know, I am on maternity leave right now, but I’m popping in from time to say hi and re-publish posts like this that I wrote when it was just my mom reading my blog. 😀

I hope it helps you get excited for your New Orleans trip if you are going to the conference, and if not, I hope it helps you get pumped about your own staycation.

***

Before the hubs and I left Richmond, VA and moved to Grenada, we saw a ton of sites in the area. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to do all the things we wanted to do!

We couldn’t believe we spent so much time living in Virginia (4 years) and missed out on some of the most important sites. Had we stay-cationed more (that is, taken off of work to “vacation” locally), we would have seen all that and more.

So now that I’m home in Louisiana visiting for a little bit, I took a day trip to New Orleans with my two sisters-in-law. We were showing around one of their boyfriends who hails from Australia. Throughout the day, we enjoyed numerous low cost activities, which led me to write this post in praise of stay-cationing.

Here are some tips I thought of to make it a memorable experience:

1. Travel, But Not Too Far

Lots of people scoff at the idea of staying at home for a vacation. I mean, why should you (A) take off work to (B) rat around in your own city? So, instead of staying in your own town, look for the nearest big city or a quaint small town nearby. Consider driving up to two hours.

This cuts down on gas for far away locations, and you can enjoy one long day before coming back home. New Orleans is about an hour and a half from where we live. We enjoyed the ride, enjoyed the scenery, and enjoyed time with family. Sometimes, just stopping to smell the roses Café du Monde coffee is just the trick to get your mind off of work and other responsibilities.

muddy mississippi

2.   Cheap Hotel/Fabulous Food

You could also think about staying in a hotel on your stay-cation, especially if you think that staying inside your own house will give you the same old distractions and stresses of laundry and other chores.

My sisters and I didn’t stay overnight this time, but I might with the hubs sometime. My advice for a hotel is a pretty easy model actually: Cheap hotel/Fabulous food.

Why pay a lot for a hotel? Pay enough to make sure you are in a safe location but then get up and go see the sites. You can always dress up and have tea at the Four Seasons if you want. In fact, you can go inside any beautiful hotel for a drink at the bar or dessert. So, don’t think that by staying in a cheap hotel, you are robbing yourself of that experience. On any vacation, I’d much rather have a few nice dinners than a few fancy bars of soap. But, that’s just me!

jackson square

3. Look for Freebies, Baby!

Who said you had to spend any money for entertainment? Depending on what you like to do, there could be a wealth of free opportunities right there in nearby towns. Many cities have free art walks once a month or free (or very low admission) museums. There are also live bands, inexpensive wine tastings, or festivals all over many states. In New Orleans, I always like strolling around Jackson Square and looking at the art. 🙂

Basically, these tips show that there are tons of free or low cost opportunities right there in your own cities. While I realize New Orleans is a super cool city, don’t underestimate your own town! Look in the papers, google around the Internet, etc. Heck, just spend a day window shopping at some antique stores to get ideas and get refreshed before facing real life again! Either way, you’re saving money and doing something outside of your normal routine while still enjoying time with your family. What’s not to love?

Got any other ideas or suggestions on how to make the most of a stay-cation? If so, I’d love to hear about it!

Taking Your Vacation at home this year? Then check out these awesome vacation tips for your staycation!

15 responses to “New Orleans Pictures & Tips for a Great Staycation

  1. I am on a mission this year to visit more of the places within a five hour radius or so of us. I don’t want to move away and regret not seeing them! Unfortunately, that pretty much entirely involves spending money on hotels or camping. I’m hoping the weather is nice and we can camp our way around.

  2. The thing I love about living in Minneapolis-St. Paul is that there is so much going on. We have a huge music scene, great night life, lots of things to do at night and on the weekends, and there’s pretty much always some sporting event going on any given day/night. Not to mention the arts scene here is huge as well and the museums and attractions are pretty much endless.

    You’d think I worked in the department of tourism after reading what I just wrote haha.

  3. Ditto what DC said. Also, there are tons of adorable little towns around here and historical places in the outer parts of the state. We need to do more of this stuff with the kids!

  4. Unrelated, but your instagram pic cracked me up. When I get home from work I get handed a baby too, then another one when the first one’s done. Ha!

  5. Thanks for sharing this Cat. I’ve never been to New Orleans or FinCon. Seems like a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

  6. I read a lot of beauty reviews about New Orleans and a breathtaking photo. Good idea about having a free entertainment like inexpensive wine tastings and watching live bands because I’m a big fan of live bands since my high school years!

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  8. We went to New Orleans last year and just rented a room through AirBnB. It was super cheap and we had a great time. The home owners told us of a few cheap, good, local spots to eat and listen to great music – away from Bourbon Street.

    There are a lot of inexpensive and delicious places to eat in New Orleans, you just need to know where to go. Also, the fancy restaurants usually have lunch specials – go for lunch for a delicious fancy meal at half the price of a dinner plate.

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