New Orleans in September

I will be coming to New Orleans for a conference after Labor Day, staying at the Hotel Monteleone. The conference ends at noon on Saturday and my departure flight is scheduled for 5 pm on Monday. What are some possible things to do on Sunday and on Monday before my departure. Also, the on time departure for that flight is only 50%!

New Orleans in September

Rather than repeat so much on the restaurants and sightseeing without knowing specific interests ..try a forum search and there will be a wealth of recent postings.

New Orleans in September

I have been reading some of the older posts. I had hoped to do some shopping. It has been discouraging since many of the places are closed on Sunday or Monday, which are the only days that I have free. I was also hoping on some tips on coping with flight delays at the New Orleans airport. Do any of the ';recommended'; New Orleans restaurants have branches at the airport?

You can do some great shopping on Royal Street, which is where the Monteleone is, if i remember correctly. Not sure about the airport, haven%26#39;t been there in a while (sadly). I will tell you that the Alibi on Iberville has the best chicken fingers in the quarter (if not the world!). Great post drinking food, and the place is open 22 hours a day (they close from 9am to 11am).

The New Orleans airport is small compared to airports in other big cities. Case in point – I picked up a friend at 9:30 Friday night, and the place was empty. Only one other flight arrived in the ½ hour I was there.

To the best of my knowledge there are no restaurants at the airport, only coffee shops and snack shops, all of which close at a relatively early hour.

There is an acme oyster house restaurant in the airport, but it closes early. It is down on the far end, closer to the terminal that houses Delta.

Thanks everyone for the information. Since my departing flight is at 5 pm and is only on time 50% plus the posts say that the airport eateries close early, I guess that I need to pack a meal with my carry on luggage. Any suggestions on box dinners from French Quarter restaurants?

Also, I am arriving at 4:30 pm on a Wednesday. What is a realistic time to get through baggage claim, find a cab, and get to my FQ hotel?

Louis Armstrong is a small airport and depending on what gate and concourse you come in on will depend upon how long a walk but generally we have our bags within 30 minutes of hitting the gate area and the cabs are right outside the baggage area and plentiful. The trip by cab depending upon the traffic should only take about 20 minutes.

I found the NOLA airport to be a bit more particular than other airports I have been in, for example, Nashville. Be sure to have that plastic bag of liquids handy, and have that laptop unzipped and out. They are very thorough, and I went thru at 7am. They were nice, though, no complaints about attitude.

You%26#39;re worrying way too much about that 50% on-time departure rate. A flight is ';late'; if it departs the gate 15 minutes after schedule, so technically a 5pm flight could leave every day at 5:16pm and have a ZERO on-time rate. While your flight may very well be running very late, it may also be just a minor irritation of a few minutes.

Airlines build in 20-30 minutes per flight for runway taxi time, gate holds, etc. You can leave 15-20 minutes past schedule and still arrive ';on time.';

As for eateries, I don%26#39;t think any of them close by 5pm. I%26#39;ve seen them closed at 8 or 9, however.

Which airline are you flying? The C and D concourses are newer and nicer while A and B (Southwest, USAirways and Northwest) are the older terminals with not quite as many food options.