We had the same tour guide that AMA N. had, who thoroughly did NOT enjoy her tour. From a different perspective, I have to say that I appreciated our elderly, more wise New Orleans' native driver/guide Mike, who talked A LOT (and yes, he did talk a lot about his family, but I didn't find it bothersome at all).
This was a last minute reservation for us on Christmas day, as we had to cancel our bike tour for the next day because of the weather. I called their office on Christmas day to see about scheduling a tour, expecting no one to answer, but I got a friendly voice on the other line and he scheduled us for a 2 0'clock tour, with a 1:35 pickup. Booking on the internet, the price was something like 42-43 dollars for a comprehensive 3-hour tour.
Mike called before 1:30, a little early, but he said he was outside and to come out when we were ready. We were, so we left. From the moment we got on the van, he chatted us up and cracked jokes, while we drove around the french quarter, picked up the other two people on the tour, and heard about new orleans history.
From the FQ, we ventured out through downtown to the garden district (he told us that we were getting the tour backwards because people always complained that it was too dark to see the houses by the time they got to the garden district at the end). It didn't matter to us what direction the tour was going in....
We had a bathroom/refreshment break after the garden district, then headed out to mid-city, with a stop at a cemetery to take pictures. Then we began heading by the lake to start learning (and seeing) about the damage of Katrina. The last areas we went to were the upper and lower ninth ward...still looks like a war zone, even over six years later...so sad.
The tour ran a little over three hours. This was a tour that we stumbled on by accident when our plans had changed at the last minute that turned out to be perfect for us. read more