Where to stay when cruising from New Orleans

In typical cruise ports like Port Canaveral, Ft Lauderdale and Tampa there are plenty of hotels that offer free parking during your cruise as long as you stay at their hotel. This tends to make those hotels the most popular among cruisers. This isn't the case with New Orleans. That's because the port is located downtown where parking is limited. Because of this there aren't a lot of park and cruise options. Occasionally one will pop up but they change so often I hesitate to list any of them by name in this post. By the time you read it, the hotel very well could have dropped the free parking.

This isn't all bad news though. Once you come to terms with having to park at the port of New Orleans and pay for parking at the cruise ship terminal it opens up your choice of hotels and there are many great hotels within walking distance to most of the attractions in downtown and the French Quarter. New Orleans is like every major city in that all the major hotel chains are represented here. If you have a favorite such as Holiday Inn or something fancier like a Sheraton then start your research with those, especially if you are part of the reward program of that chain.

Something new since Katrina is the Harrah's hotel, which even offers view of the cruise ships out certain room windows. This is great for the gambler in the family. Heck, spend enough at the casino and that parking might be free after all. Before Katrina, Harrah's didn't offer its own hotel and if you wanted to stay next door you had to be lucky to find a free room at the Doubletree.

Besides the casino hotel and major chains, New Orleans is full of charming french style hotels. In fact many of those rank among the best on tripadvisor. They tend to be a little more expensive than chain hotels but if you are looking for a unique experience to round out your cruise vacation one of these hotels is the way to go.

Here are the top 5 hotels in New Orleans per TripAdvisor

1. Drury Inn & Suites
2. Harrah's
3. Quality Inn & Suites
4. The Roosevelt
5. Hotel Le Marais

I love tripadvisor and would never book a room without checking there first. Sometimes those cruising from New Orleans may not be familiar with the local and there are certainly some shady areas of the city. tripadvisor will let you know if the area is good or not.