The most famous time to visit New Orleans is during the Mardi Gras festival!
Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”, it isn’t only to celebrate on one day but it’s about a month-long Carnival Season. Mardi Gras is scheduled 47 days before Easter and can occur on any Tuesday from February 3 through March 9, check Mardi Gras dates from now until 2027 at http://www.neworleansonline.com
When the festival starts there will be many parades which are named by the “krewe of…”
As a local, we would see parades everywhere. The parades are not only uptown New Orleans but they are spreading all over the State. Each district will have their own Krewe – and each of them is so amazing. That’s why this is the “Greatest Free Show on Earth”!!!
It’s not just show-time but it’s time to earn the beads as well! During the parade, they will throw you Mardi Gras beads. Some beads are specifically made for the year.
Like the Krewe of Muses (Women Parade) – they threw the high heels shoes!!!
It’s good to pay attention to the parade route because the roads will be closed and crowded. I saw many families parked their cars and set up chairs for 4-5 hrs before the parade starts so they can get a better spot to watch the parade and the better chance to catch beads!
We are so lucky to have the Krewe of Bilge, this is the boat parade which comes on the water, not on the road, kind of more special than others!
This year we’re (all) home and we planned to do Endymion Ball on Saturday night before the Mardi Gras day on Tuesday, February 13th.
We live about 30mins away from New Orleans but we decided to stay at the hotel for 3 nights until the Mardi Gras day, so we don’t have to worry about drinking and driving!
We stayed at Hotel Monteleone, a hotel in the French Quarter which is generally a convenient location and easy to catch the parades.
We booked the hotel at $1,669 for 3 nights (plus taxes BUT remember if you are tourists, you can get a tax refund at River Walk Mall), we paid extra for overnight parking, it’s $45 per night!
Looks like the hotel bar is very famous too, it’s always crowded!
We didn’t pay for the hotel breakfast, we are ok to get up and walk to Jackson square for beignet and chicory coffee every morning!
Overall, we are satisfied with our stay at the Hotel Monteleone. We had to wear the hotel wristband at all time, we were seriously checked the wristband before taking an elevator up to our room. Even Tim showed his wristband, but I had to show mine too (we were holding hands!). So I’m not pretty sure you can’t take “your guest” back to this hotel with you without the wristband…
The wristband would cost you $25 each if you lost it but it’s free when you checked into the hotel and you can keep it when you check out…It’s a souvenir!
But it was a good idea to stay the hotel during the festival, it would be hard to get into the city during this time.
As the last 3 nights before the Mardi Gras day, the town was getting more crowded every day.
Especially Bourbon Street which starts about 9 in the morning and over about 7 in the morning the next day! This street is almost 24hrs for you to catch the beads!
It’s easy for girls to earn beads but boys may have to work harder!
The street will be overcrowded and over-drunk all the time – but no matter what DON’T PICK UP THE BEADS in the street – it’s gross! Imagine drunk people pee or when they drank too much, they threw up!
One time Tim saw the drunk guy tried to peep on the lady’s legs while we were watching the parade! That is the craziest thing about our first Mardi Gras experience ever!!!
I almost throw my sneakers away after the trip, it’s so dirty!!!
Some drunk people are very sweet, like these two guys who wanted to take pictures with me!
The more crowded, the more police showed up to watch the tourist. Also, the mounted polices were checking on us all night long!
We were out on Bourbon Street every night just to watch the crowds catching the beads and to get some hand grenade drinks.
Do I have to put on a fancy or groovy dress for Mardi Gras?
I’ve read that the most elderly locals took the whole year to make their own Mardi Gras costumes, and you will see many of them in the fancy and groovy dress on Mardi Gras day.
The common fashion for Mardi Gras should contain 3 main colors, Purple & Yellow & Green (it’s Kingcake colors!!!). Don’t worry if you didn’t have one or forgot to pack some with you. There are so many selections in the French Quarter shops or in the French Market.
It was weird about the weather, it was too cold the 2 days before the Mardi Gras day – so we couldn’t wear our Mardi Gras t-shirts without jackets!
Tim stopped to ask an older man who sat along Royal Street what time the parade will start? He said it’s between now to dusk! I had to tell Tim that we had to ask someone else who wasn’t retired!
But we found out there’re small walking parades everywhere in the French Quarter, so I guess that’s what he meant!
Well, we were done by the time the parades over!
We checked out of the hotel about 11.30am and escaped the city before lunch. It was good luck for us, we had no problem with parade traffic and it’s a normal ride home for 30mins!
We’re home safely with a few Mardi Gras beads because I didn’t try to ‘earn them’, this time!
It was just right for me to join this festival once during the time we are living in New Orleans – you never know we might move back to Thailand or South Korea later!
