My Most Recent New Orleans Trip

A few weeks ago I traveled to New Orleans for the third time! This was actually my first time traveling their during the summer, so I definitely got to understand the heat and humidity of the South! To be honest, it wasn't at all as bad as I was expecting. I actually kind of enjoyed it, maybe that's just me missing the sun since moving to Seattle! I was there accompanying my best friend and roommate Steph to the National Athletic Training conference, and surprisingly there were so many college friends that went as well! It turned out to be such a fun trip, and slightly different from the times I went before.

If you haven't already, check out my full New Orleans travel guide, because I'll mostly be doing a recap rather than a guide in this post! But the guide has SO MUCH INFO and I literally share it with everyone who talks about visiting! It's got places to stay, things to do, things to eat and drink, excursions, and more! Okay enough on that, here's what I got into on this visit!

This time around I repeated a few things I did my first trip, but also tried out some brand new things. One of the things I did again was visit the Garden District in New Orleans. I didn't take my sister there on the last trip, and was itching to get back to all the cute little shops and beautiful mansions! I ended up buying some cute jewelry at the local boutiques there and wish the shops were here in Seattle so I could keep shopping, haha! Also one of my favorite bakeries has a location in the GD as well, so we had to stop in for some desserts (+ gelato since it was so dang hot/humid!)

Sucré is a bakery that I've been to every single time I go to New Orleans. I think we visited 3 or 4 times this trip alone, the desserts are just that good! I tried the eclair, which was voted best eclair in the world last year by a magazine I can't remember, haha. It was pretty good, although world's best is still to be debated. World's prettiest for sure, just look at those sparkles and glitter dollops! They also have a ridiculous amount of macarons, and although they aren't my favorite my best friend loved them.

Another thing I really wanted to do again was take a swamp tour. I did this my first trip, but it was in January so all the alligators were basically hibernating. This time around was the complete opposite! We saw 5 or 6 gators and they were all so active! Our boat driver and tour guide actually spoke to the alligators in french, and y'all they LISTENED. One of the alligators swam away to chase a little one out of his territory, and our guide yelled at him to leave him alone and come back to the boat and he immediately turned around and came back. It was insanely cool and also kind of terrifying. The alligators weren't afraid of us at all, and swam directly up to the boat, one even tried to get on! Our guide kept them busy by tossing marshmallows at them, who knew alligators liked to eat marshmallows!

Overall it was super fun, and I just loved getting to ride into the swamp. Part of me weirdly felt at home when flying through all the spanish moss and overgrown trees. It was soothing and beautiful in such a unique way. We went with a company called Airboat Adventures, the same company I had taken before, and I can't recommend them enough!

Okay I promise I wore different outfits on this trip, these photos all just happened to be taken on the same day! Steph and I's school was having an athletic training reunion-type party at one of the bars on Bourbon street so I tagged along even though I'm not an athletic trainer, because I likely would know most of the people there anyhow. It ended up being a little reunion of some friends, and I was so excited to finally get a photo of myself on a Bourbon balcony!

Last and certainly not least, I ate to my heart's content in New Orleans. Above is the chicken and biscuits brunch from Bourbon House, the restaurant attached to the hotel we stayed at. These biscuits were honestly to die for they were so good! If you're wondering what other restaurants I love in NOLA definitely check out my Travel Guide because it's full of them!

Have you ever been to New Orleans? What are your favorite places to travel?