Why La Belle Esplanade?
You have plenty of options to choose from where to stay when you visit New Orleans. How do you decide? Why La Belle Esplanade? Well, I’ll tell you: good memories are made on our street everyday.
If you want to visit New Orleans like a tourist, you have plenty of options. If you want to stay in a hotel that is like every other hotel you’ve ever stayed in, you have plenty of options for that, too. We’re not some international conglomerate with personality (such as it is) squeezed out of a tube to appeal to the lowest common denominator. We don’t buy generic artwork by the pound and hang it just to fill up wall space.
La Belle Esplanade is a unique craft hotel run by two New Orleans goodwill ambassadors. We love this city. Stay at La Belle and you’ll fall in love with New Orleans. Guaranteed.
You can tell the difference from La Belle and a chain hotel from our website. Nothing here is canned (the same is true of our breakfasts). No corporate buzz-speak, fancy advertising campaigns, bait-and-switch. After five nights or a week at La Belle Esplanade, your heart will be filled with the kind of memories that will make you smile for the rest of your life. How do I know? Because our many repeat guests tell us so.
WHY LA BELLE ESPLANADE?
The better question is why not La Belle Esplanade? What are you afraid of? Being too satisfied? Get off the typical tourist radar and visit New Orleans like you live here. Make La Belle your New Orleans headquarters while you are here. We live in a very interesting neighborhood.
I was counting the other day and I counted over 60 restaurants within a mile radius of our house. There are six museums within a 10-minute walk—-and it is a very picturesque stroll in every direction. Here are the museums I am thinking of:
The Backstreet Cultural Museum
The New Orleans African American Museum
The Edgar Degas House and Museum
The Museum of the Free People of Color
—-and that’s not counting the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint or the New Orleans Museum of Art, each at either end of Esplanade Avenue, about a 20-minute stroll from our address. If you are looking for culture, La Belle Esplanade is in the thick of it.
EAT LIKE A LOCAL IN NEW ORLEANS.
You’ve eaten the complimentary breakfast at a chain hotel before, haven’t you? ‘Nuff said about that. No powdered eggs and no boxes of cold cereal at La Belle Esplanade. Who eats that old oatmeal on the hotel buffet? I’ve never seen anyone do it.
I know your friends who have been to New Orleans told you to have breakfast at the Ruby Slipper or at Camellia Grill. That’s because they stayed in a regular hotel. Breakfast out is better than breakfast in. You can go to those places if you really want to but I always have to ask, “Don’t you have a place that serves omelettes and hash browns where you live?” Do you really have a thirst for diner coffee?
Here is why you have breakfast at La Belle Esplanade: Every morning we go to neighborhood bakeries, pastry shops, cheese mongers, restaurants, caterers, and farmers’ markets to pick up something fresh that we think will be interesting that day. It is a locally curated buffet of meats and cheeses, sweet and savory, always some surprising thing hot out of the oven, always a local pastry you’ve never heard of before. Every day is different. You can stay with us for two weeks and every item on the breakfast table will be different every day. We are interested in giving you a taste of all the things New Orleans has to offer and we believe in supporting our neighborhood businesses.
TALK LIKE A LOCAL IN NEW ORLEANS.
You don’t have to rely on guidebooks or Yelp to discover the best things you can find in New Orleans. We’ve read all the top ten lists of things to do, too, but, as two New Orleans goodwill ambassadors, we live here. We go everywhere and we have done just about everything. Our reputation is making personalized authentic recommendations off the usual tourist radar.
Go to the French Quarter. Go to Frenchmen Street. We know that is why you are here. Once you have stocked up on novelty tee shirts and you’ve been to enough dueling piano bars, ask us about everything else. There is a whole wide and wonderful city out here. It’s why people have chosen to make New Orleans home. We love this city. We love where we live. You will, too. Visit like you belong in New Orleans. You do belong at La Belle Esplanade.
Every morning we talk with our guests to discover what might interest them. You’ll learn what other people have done during their stay and you’ll be given insider tips on what’s going on in this kaleidoscope of a city. We’ll tell you things no hotel concierge will tell you. Why? Because we want you to experience New Orleans the way we do, with a sense of wonder and gratitude, immersed in this densely woven and richly textured culture. No subject is taboo. New Orleans is magical. You’ll see for yourself.
WHY LA BELLE ESPLANADE?
New Orleans is a unique city. You should make the most of your time here. Discover what it means to fall in love with New Orleans. You’ll never see everything. You’ll never do everything. Pick a neighborhood for a day and soak in your surroundings. There is southern hospitality and then there is New Orleans hospitality. Everyone here is friendly. Then, there is La Belle Esplanade hospitality. We’re here for you. We only have five suites so plan ahead. Our mission is to share what we know about our home
MAKE LA BELLE YOUR HOME BASE.
La Belle Esplanade has won the Trip Advisor Travelers’s Choice Award two years in a row. Not many places can say that. Consistently ranked in the top five places to stay in the United States. Visit New Orleans like you mean it and make some good memories here, the best kind.
Follow us on Facebook. Subscribe to our newsletter below. Get your good self in a New Orleans state of mind. There are very few places so nice as New Orleans. There is no other small hotel as special as La Belle Esplanade. To make a reservation, the “Check Availability” button is on the top of this page, or you can click here. Do it. You won’t regret it.
April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday: New Orleans will greet you with wide open arms. New Orleans will make you feel welcome. New Orleans will entice you and delight you. New Orleans will make you fall in love. How do I know? I live here. I see it happen every day. Join us. Why La Belle Esplanade? Because you deserve to experience the real New Orleans, not the off-the-rack, one-size-fits-all New Orleans. You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue. You’ll see.