404HappyTraveller
Jan 2020
One of the first things we usually do in a new city is find a hop on hop off bus tour. We bought the three day pass, as it included a walking tour of the Garden District and of the French Quarter. The bus tour took a couple of hours, and changed guides partway through. Some guides are definitely better than others, but all were entertaining and informative. And it was a great ride around the areas, and gave us the opportunity to orient ourselves as to what was where. I thought there was too much “advertising” for some of the business we passed and would have preferred more information and less referrals to the businesses. We took the Garden District walking tour first, and it was pretty good, but very short - about forty minutes and only covered a few blocks of the area. The guide was entertaining and knowledgeable, but it was the last tour on a Friday afternoon and I think he was more interested in finishing his week. The second day we took the French Quarter tour, and the guide was again very knowledgeable and quite entertaining, but, again, the tour was very short and really only went around Jackson Square and not the rest of the French Quarter. We’ll probably use the bus again tomorrow, but more for transportation to some of the distant points and not so much for the tour part. And, we’ll quite possibly do a different walking tour later that does a longer more extensive tour of the FQ and the GD.