When I first visited New Orleans last year, I remembered checking into the hotel and opening up my laptop to browse the numerous attractions, restaurants and things to do in the city. I found myself spending 2 hours going through various reviews when I realized that I didn't want to waste another minute of my vacation on the computer. So my first thought was to find a local to ask about the city, so I went to the front desk as it would be the most economical thing to do. Although the front desk was willing to help, I felt like I was being referred to certain businesses that gave kick-backs in return for my participation - This wasn't going to cut it! All I wanted was some non-bias feedback of New Orleans from someone that wasn't trying to profit off of my visit.
So I decided to book a French Quarter walking tour of New Orleans because it would be my chance to not only ask the tour guide questions, but an opportunity to meet with tour participants and ask them for their opinions. It seemed like a good idea at first, but it turned out to be an even better idea when the tour was finished. For the $40 I spent on the tour, I not only learned a lot of great things about the French Quarter, but it was very informative and gave us ideas for the next 3 days of our stay. The tour participants also were helpful and gave us some restaurant and nightlife ideas. One participant was also nice enough to give us some safety tips, that saved us when we were approached by a scammer on Bourbon Street later in our vacation.
That $40 investment was the best thing we could have done for our vacation. I highly recommend a walking tour for any city vacation is the first thing anyone should do before they get started.
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