Frommer's New Orleans

This book is awesome! It provided all the information I needed for a wonderful trip during the Thanksgiving break. Its reviews on hotels, restaurants, and clubs were all proven to be accurate. I followed its advice and had a good time eating fresh oysters at Acme Oyster Bar, drinking cafe au lait and eating beignets at Cafe du Monde, riding the St. Charles streetcar, listening to great jazz at the Preservation Hall, touring the Oak Alley and Laura plantations, and drinking Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's. I did not know Pat O'Brien's before going to New Orleans. In this book, Mary Herczog said 'what trip to New Orleans is complete without sampling the famous Hurricane (at the Pat O'Brien's)?' Believe me, she is right on this one! I had a great time at the piano bar singing along with two very talented singers while drinking Hurricane. One thing they might want to improve is the map. It is a new feature but it doesn't have a lot of information on it.

The maps and suggested itineraries are great. With this book I was able to quickly orient myself in this cool town and see lots of interesting sites. I would buy it again.

I thought this was a really great book--I only wish it was longer! The section on Mardi Gras (especially the author's personal memoir of being on a float) was particularly excellent, showing how you could enjoy the celebration in your own way--either nice, naughty, or nasty, which should include everyone on the spectrum from families with young children to raunchy college students.The walking tour section was also really good. It was nice to have a "guided tour" through the Garden District and Esplanade Ridge, which many tourists may not get around to doing, but you should.I also really liked the after-dark entries. I got a feeling the author really knew what she was talking about when it comes to music (which is what you're supposed to do in NO, right?).All in all, I thought this was great. Try it. You'll like it.

I looked at a number of guides to New Orleans before selecting Frommer's 2002 New Orleans to help me with my trip. Frommer's was my favorite. It provides detailed, accurate and reliable information on attractions, hotels, restaurants, shopping, and various other topics. Frommer's was by far the most comprehensive guide I saw for most topics. I was particularly pleased with the down-to-earth discussion of attractions: museums, parks, bars, public places, etc. The maps were also excellent: a good map (in reality, several good maps) is a necessity for getting around New Orleans and making the most of the city. Frommer's guide provides better than average maps and good information on attractions that will help ensure you're making the most of your time. As a bonus, the attractions are marked on many maps near the parts of the book where they're discussed, and when you see how New Orleans streets are laid out, you'll understand how useful that is!I was disappointed in the guide's coverage of restaurants, though. I thought they detailed relatively few restaurants, and found their descriptions and ratings fairly weak. My sister, who lives in New Orleans, took us to several "locals" places that were at least as good as the highly rated restaurants in the guide. The lesson is: don't be afraid to experiment. If you need to rely on a restaurant guide, choose another. Better yet, ask some locals. My personal favorite was NOLA (get the duck!). The Palace Café gets a strong recommendation, and if you're in the French Quarter and want a casual lunch, try Central Grocery for great mufalletas. Café du Mond (coffee and beignets) was a must for me, and I didn't find it disappointing.With the exception of eateries, I relied much on Frommer's guide when planning my trip, and also when we were there. I found the guide's advice to be reliable and concise. It offered great descriptions of attractions, and helped us find several which were perfect for kids (we traveled with our 2-year-old). In particular, we found Audubon Park, The Audubon Zoo, and City Park fantastic for kids and adults alike. Moreover, the guide's information typically matched the things the locals told us.Frommer's will help you get the most out of New Orleans, but equally important is a willingness to try new things and be adventurous. The French Quarter is great, but you'll likely find things you like a lot more in other parts of the city. Frommer's does an excellent job of laying out the material in a format that you can either read through, or easily use as a reference guide. Either way, it should help you find most of what you're looking for. I can unconditionally recommend it, both because it was the best guide I found before I headed to New Orleans, and because it proved its worth when I was actually there. It definitely added significantly to our enjoyment of the trip.

Frommer New Orleans 2002 will guide to and through New Orleans. It will open up the city for you like a jazz player opening his trumpet case. New Orleans is Mardi Gras (fittingly the entomology of `Mardi Gras' goes back to a Roman orgy). This annual event defines New Orleans for the million plus tourist that come to be part of this "party to end all parties". There is music, lots of jazz music, parades, salacious acts, alcohol, food and sex that incarnate this granddaddy of public parties. But, as hundreds of thousands of other visitors to New Orleans can tell you, all of these traits can be easily be found throughout the year in this emancipated city. Be assured that Frommer's guide will open this city up for you, anytime of the year.The guide's accommodations and dining recommendations are up to date, plentiful, generally accurate and reliable. However, my experience at the Pelham Hotel did not warrant the "highly rated" star that Frommer's gave it. The carpets in the room were stained and needed cleaning, there was an noticeable odor in the hall and room, the front desk staff was apathetic and some of the normal amenities that hotels in this price range offer (in room coffee, etc) were not provided. Frommer's needs to rethink its rating on this property. Frommer's star rating system is difficult to locate. It is buried away from the recommendations in the first portion of the book. When I did find the ratings they were somewhat difficult to understand and confusing. There are zero to three stars but moderate or inexpensive restaurants and hotels can only get zero, one or two, but NOT three. The very expensive to expensive restaurants and hotels can be awarded one, two or three stars, but NOT zero. So an expensive property CAN'T get a zero (but in my last experience, the Sheraton New Orleans needs a -0) and a moderate restaurant CAN'T get a three star rating ("exceptional"). Frommer's must feel that if a property has a lot of money invested they could not totally disappoint and if a proprietor did not invest big bucks, well they could ever reach exceptional. Wrong. This is the weakest area of this book and definitely needs improvement.Maps are essential in a guide, and for this Mississippi twisting city good maps are a must. Frommer's has excelled in this area and has included a free color fold out map in the back of the book. Kudos! A wonderfully strong aspect of this guide, that can be very beneficial to your trip planning, are the Internet web site addresses provided with almost every hotel. You now can visit the hotel site and see the in room accommodation, check out the specials and rates prior to making your reservations. The guide also has a very good shopping section, and many of the listed stores also have web site addresses. Also there is a very solid section on recommend books and recordings (though it sorely lacks any mention of videos - films set in N.O.). Finally, for those with more than three days Fromm