You Meet the Nicest People in New Orleans

You know where I think the best small hotel is in New Orleans.  You are on the right website for that one.  You meet the nicest people in New Orleans.

What is the best big hotel in New Orleans?  I’m partial to grand old hotels, so I’m partial to the Roosevelt Hotel, part of the Waldorf Astoria/Hilton brand. La Belle Esplanade is a colorful Creole New Orleans mansion built in 1883.  We only have five suites.  I think the Roosevelt has 269 rooms, the last time I asked someone there.  They are all small and cramped, even the Presidential Suite.  You meet the nicest people in New Orleans.  They’ll give you a lot of inside information.

We went to the Roosevelt Hotel the other day:

We went to the Roosevelt Hotel to see the Christmas display in the lobby.  It happens every year.  It is something you do in New Orleans, a Christmas tradition.  A year without a trip to the Roosevelt Hotel lobby is like a year without midnight mass.  You’ll never miss it except the year you don’t go.

YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE THE NICEST PEOPLE YOU MEET IN NEW ORLEANS.

New Orleans is a city full of pleasant surprises.  You never know who you’ll bump into when you turn a corner here.  There are no strangers in New Orleans.  Everyone is a friend you’re about to meet.  —–Hello.

They decorate the lobby in the Roosevelt Hotel every Christmas.  It is really something to see.  We don’t decorate the lobby at La Belle Esplanade.  Christmas isn’t Mardi Gras.  The lobby at La Belle Esplanade is a museum that is open to the public.  We can’t change the exhibits at the whim of every season.  The New Orleans Odditarium is a serious museum, not a shopping mall.

YOU MEET THE NICEST PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS.  I KNOW.  I MET ONE.

The lobby in the Roosevelt Hotel really is beautiful this time of year.  If you squint, you can see angels.

The Sazerac Bar is always crowded and it’s overpriced, anyway.  Here’s a pro tip.  At night, go to the Fountain Lounge at the Roosevelt Hotel.  If you want to get a good night’s sleep, you’ll stay at La Belle Esplanade, the #1-ranked small hotel in New Orleans according to TripAdvisor since April 2014. (You should read the reviews over there!). If you want to meet the nicest people in New Orleans, you’ll pop in for a bottle of champagne and a cheese plate at the Fountain Lounge.  Maybe you’ll meet Sarah.  You’ll be lucky if you do.

What’s nice about living in New Orleans is you get to talk to other people who live in New Orleans.  When two people speak the same language, it’s a welcome relief.  It is a chapstick for the soul.  Some people are just plain nice.  You meet the nicest people in New Orleans.

When you work in a bar or a restaurant in the French Quarter, or in the Central Business District, or next to the Convention Center, you have to talk to a lot of people who don’t know anything about New Orleans but they pretend they do, the think they do, they fool themselves into thinking that they know a lot about about New Orleans.  They wouldn’t know a Chalmatian if she handed them a sazerac.  They don’t know lagniappe from shinola.  They are going back to Iowa tomorrow.  The nicest people you’ll ever meet live in Iowa.

Off the tourist radar, it’s a different New Orleans.  Off the tourist radar, you’re one of us.  Welcome to the real New Orleans.  You belong here.  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.  Visit New Orleans like you live here.  La Belle Esplanade is here for you.

Sunday, December 8, 2019: La Belle Esplanade is a small craft hotel, a B&B if you want to call it that.  We are not an AirBnB.  Our five-suite hotel is run by two New Orleans goodwill ambassadors who make personalized recommendations over a curated breakfast of local delicacies every morning.  We only have five suites so we tend to fill up early.  Plan ahead.  Here is a link to our calendar.

Follow us on Facebook.  We post 2, 3, 4, 5 times a day to keep you in a New Orleans state of mind.

Follow this blog of course.  You  do know it’s the best-written blog in New Orleans, don’t you?

La Belle Esplanade also sponsors another blog.  It’s called, “A New Orleans State of Mind.”  Don’t believe everything you read over there.

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Just pick a week to Visit New Orleans and get your good self down here.  Good memories are made in New Orleans every day.  The best New Orleans memories are made at La Belle Esplanade.  Once again, our calendar, and our rates for you dates, is HERE.  We’re here for you.