Nuthin' Like NOLA

Neither Mr. J and I ever had a chance to visit New Orleans before Katrina.  So, when he was offered an opportunity to do a recruiting stint during the Black NBA Conference in September 2009, we both jumped at the chance to spend a weekend there.

Mr. J's company paid for the hotel stay during the first two nights of our trip and we had to take care of the last two nights.  Since I had such great luck with our Chicago hotel earlier that year, I decided to try and use Priceline again for this trip.

We had such different hotel experiences, and we surprised each other by agreeing that we liked the Priceline hotel better in the end.  For our first two nights, we stayed at the W New Orleans.   

Photo credit: W New Orleans website

The W is located right across the street from the Loews Hotel on Poydras, but it's a little bit farther away from the Convention Center than we both expected.

Photo credit: W New Orleans website

It's swanky, sexy, smooth.  Plus, it also has the Whiskey Blue bar in the lobby (there's one in NYC and I love that one).  When you walk through the lobby of this hotel, you feel like you are heading to the club.

 Photo credit: W New Orleans website

The rooms were very modern and small.  I think this has more to do with the older building that the W used to renovate into this posh hotel.  The bathroom was extra tight, which I was not happy about.  All in all, we were happy we didn't have to pay for that hotel stay since it was quite pricey.

Photo credit: Hilton New Orleans Riverside website

For $46 / night for 2 weekend nights, we had a massive room with river views at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.  I couldn't believe it!  The hotel is located right next to the Convention Center and it also had a street car stop right in front of it.  What better way to discover the Big Easy than to ride around in the street car?

I was pleasantly surprised that the room was so large (especially compared to the W).  The Hilton is absolutely massive, so I felt like we were walking forever before we reached our room.  Mr. J, however, assured me that it wasn't as far from the hotel entrance as I thought.  I think I was concentrating on drinks and beignets too much to really understand where I was going.  Hehe.

The bathroom wasn't spectacular, especially since the hotel was dubbed a four star.  I think for the price it was still great ;-)  Mr. J and I will gladly return to this hotel the next time we visit friends in the area.