New Orleans aka "The Big Easy" TourFood • Drink • Jazz • The Mississippi • The Bayou & Southern hospitality!And now for something completely different! Whether your interest is music or food or night life or genteel southern charm and hospitality, New Orleans has it all. And on this 5 day tour we give you a little taste of all of the above.
There is truly no other city like New Orleans also known as the "Big Easy". Many people come here for the food – a colourful and tasty mix of Cajun and Creole traditions that can be easily found in many of the city’s fine restaurants and inexpensive sidewalk cafes. Many more come for its Jazz. It is of course the birthplace of Jazz heard throughout the French Quarter and Bourbon Street both day and night. Combine it with the energy that flows through the streets, clubs and restaurants, the influence of the French & Spanish cultures and well, you have enchanted streets, “The Riverwalk” along the Mississippi River Delta, the St. Charles streetcar through the Garden District (where we will be staying by the way) and the city’s charm is inescapable. |
5-Day Trip
Nov 7-11, 2019 $100 deposit per person to reserve a seat. Full payment due Sept 19, 2019
This tour travels to the USA. Passports required!
To book over the phone
please call (866) 208-2950 |
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Tour starts and ends in New Orleans. Prices shown do not include airfare. See flight arrangements section below for more details.
Inclusions
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Tour DatesNov 7-11, 2019
PricesAll prices below are per person, in Canadian dollars. All taxes & tips included. Airfare to/from New Orleans is not included!
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Flight Arrangements
You will need to purchase your own airline ticket as follows. You are welcome to make your own flight arrangements or please call Marville Travel at (905) 891-0111 and one of the agents will be pleased to book your air travel.
- From Toronto to New Orleans on November 7, 2019. Please book your flights so that you land at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans by 4:30 PM. That will allow you time to collect your luggage, take the complimentary hotel shuttle to the Holiday Inn, check in, freshen up and meet our tour guide in the lobby. Our official tour starts that evening at 6:30 PM with dinner followed by a live jazz show.
- From New Orleans to Toronto on November 11, 2019, we recommend that you book any flight departing after 4:30 PM. There will be 2 airport transfers that day which will deliver you to the airport at 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM. We recommend you stay for the later one in order to join the group and enjoy the unique brunch at the Court Of Two Sisters, included as part of the tour.
Deposits, Payments, Cancellations & Refunds
- $100 deposit required to reserve your seats. Deposit is non-refundable once paid.
- Final payment is due by September 19, 2019. Reminder emails will be sent a few days before due date. Final payments are not refundable once paid.
- Please note the airline ticket is your responsibility and we are not able to provide any refunds for your air tickets if you should need to change or cancel your travel plans. Trip cancellation insurance is highly recommended.
Travelling With Children
- Children 10 and older are welcome on this tour, same price as adults.
Single Supplement
- We do not charge single supplements or surcharges!
- Are you travelling by yourself and are willing to share your room with one other person? We guarantee to find you a roommate of the same gender or we pay the surcharge!
- If you wish to have a private room by yourself, that is not a problem, simply choose single occupancy at the time of booking and pay the single occupancy rate.
Travel Documents
- US Immigration requires that all travellers MUST have a passport (or Nexus or EDL cards). If you do not have a Canadian or USA passport, please make sure that you have the appropriate permissions or documentation to travel to the USA.
- If you are denied entry to the US, sadly we will have to leave you at the border.
- Sorry but no refunds if you are denied entry.
Emergency Medical Insurance
- Emergency medical and trip cancellation insurance is strongly recommended. Getting ill in the USA can be very expensive.
- If you are not covered by a workplace or other policy, we recommend that you purchase insurance for this trip.
- Both CAA and RBC Insurance sell such insurance online or you can also call Marville Travel at (905) 891-0111 and one of the agents will be pleased to assist you.
Itinerary
Day 1 - Thu Nov 7
We gather in the lobby of our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express from 6:00 PM onwards to meet our local tour guide as well as the ShortTrips.ca representative who will also accompany you for the duration of the tour. Our bus departs at 6:30 PM this evening for a classic Cajun dinner at Mulate's followed by a live New Orleans Jazz Show.
Day 2 - Fri Nov 8
Start with a full breakfast and then we check out of our airport hotel followed by a comprehensive city tour of New Orleans. Lunch will be on your own today, rest assured, there's no shortage of places to eat in New Orleans. Then in the afternoon, you will visit and get a guided tour of St. Louis Cathedral. After that, we check into the Drury Inn & Suites in the Garden District, our hotel for the next 3 nights. After some free time to freshen up, the bus will pick you up and take you to the New Orleans School Of Cooking where a chef will demonstrate Cajun cooking and prepare 3 classic Louisiana dishes -- and they will be your dinner at the end of the cooking class. Mmm mmm mmm!
Day 3 - Sat Nov 9
Again, start with a full breakfast buffet and then we head out to Plantation Country to visit the Laura Plantation.
Enjoy a cultural tour experience unique to this area. Here, on the banks of the Mississippi River, surrounded by fields of sugarcane, you will find the difference that exemplifies Creole Louisiana. Get a guided tour of the the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead with a visit into the 3 gardens and a guided tour of one of the slave cabins, built in 1840, where the ancient west-African tales of Compare Lapin, better known in English as “Br’er Rabbit”, were recorded.
Enjoy a cultural tour experience unique to this area. Here, on the banks of the Mississippi River, surrounded by fields of sugarcane, you will find the difference that exemplifies Creole Louisiana. Get a guided tour of the the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead with a visit into the 3 gardens and a guided tour of one of the slave cabins, built in 1840, where the ancient west-African tales of Compare Lapin, better known in English as “Br’er Rabbit”, were recorded.
After our tour of the plantation we visit another unique restaurant in Bayou country for our included lunch. Following lunch we will experience a Louisiana Swamp Boat Tour. See the Cajuns of the Bayou living and surviving in harmony with the swamps. Here, the waterways are their highways. From the relaxed comfort of our covered Swamp Tour Boat, we will drift slowly past a 2000 year old Indian Burial Mound, a Cajun cemetery and Fishing village! You may see the wildlife that made the Barataria Swamps the Crown Jewel of the Louisiana Purchase. Expect to see wildlife, hope you aren't easily scared of gators!
Day 4 - Sun Nov 10
Another wonderful hot breakfast and we travel to Mardi Gras World to get a "behind the scenes" tour of the floats that will be in development for the February 2020 Mardi Gras. When you get up close and personal, you realize how big these floats are. Snap a couple of selfies of yourself as if you were in the parade.
Then we visit The Presbytere which is home to a moving exhibit titled "Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond". Learn about the vast destruction of parts of New Orleans in 2005 and how well the city has recovered and bounced back from that terrible event. Then you have a free afternoon to enjoy the French Quarter and lunch on your own.
Then we visit The Presbytere which is home to a moving exhibit titled "Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond". Learn about the vast destruction of parts of New Orleans in 2005 and how well the city has recovered and bounced back from that terrible event. Then you have a free afternoon to enjoy the French Quarter and lunch on your own.
And for our final evening in New Orleans, we cap it off with a memorable dinner cruise on the Steamboat Natchez as it sails serenely through the Mississippi River Delta. Dinner on board accompanied by live jazz is included as part of the tour. This will be a memory that will not easily be forgotten -- listening to jazz, gentle warm breezes blowing through your hair as you stand at the railing watching the New Orleans skyline with the setting sun. Wow!
Day 5 - Mon Nov 11
All good things must come to an end and alas, today is the last day of the tour.
After our breakfast at the hotel, we will checkout and then have a final group brunch at the classic New Orleans French Quarter establishment, the Court Of Two Sisters. You think you may have had brunches before but you sure ain't had a brunch like this one! With live jazz, naturally! You'll just have to try the experience.
After the brunch, you will have a little bit of free time for you to take some final photos of the French Quarter and then it will be time to board the bus for the transfer to Louis Armstrong International Airport and our flights home. So on this day you will say farewell to new friends you’ve made, but not to the memories that will remain with you for a lifetime!
After our breakfast at the hotel, we will checkout and then have a final group brunch at the classic New Orleans French Quarter establishment, the Court Of Two Sisters. You think you may have had brunches before but you sure ain't had a brunch like this one! With live jazz, naturally! You'll just have to try the experience.
After the brunch, you will have a little bit of free time for you to take some final photos of the French Quarter and then it will be time to board the bus for the transfer to Louis Armstrong International Airport and our flights home. So on this day you will say farewell to new friends you’ve made, but not to the memories that will remain with you for a lifetime!
