Royal Street

Don’t Look Like a Typical Tourist

Try Not to Look Like a Typical Tourist

There are plenty of times when I am walking around the French Quarter and I see people looking at maps and trying to figure out where they are and where they are going, or walking down the sidewalk while looking at the Google Maps on their phone. They may as well be wearing a sign that says “Hey! I’m from out-of-town! I’m vulnerable!”

New Orleans isn’t much different from any city in that you need to have a little street-smarts in order to get around. As much fun as it is, you don’t want to fall into the mindset that it is a grownup version of Disney World. It’s a city, and the French Quarter is a neighborhood where people live and work.

Find Yourself a Local

Locals, especially French Quarter locals, are generally friendly and willing to help out visitors find their way. Here are a few ways to spot a local:

1. It may need to go without saying, but your server or your bartender are surely locals. Ask them for directions, or recommendations and you will learn some things that the guide books won’t tell you. Hotel concierges, while very helpful, are often college students on a Hospitality Degree internship, and many are not “from here.”
2. The check-out girls at Rouses’ are all locals, and are very familiar with the French Quarter. Rouses is the Quarter’s supermarket and it is small and often very crowded. If the checkout lines are long, then obviously don’t ask questions. Find someone who is shopping for things like toilet paper, cat food, and Windex. That person is surely headed back to their apartment in the Quarter and will often help you find your way.
3. Locals walk down the sidewalk with purpose. They don’t tend to stroll much. They might be carrying a newspaper, or a Rouses bag, or walking a dog. They won’t be carrying a bag full of beignet mix from Cafe Du Monde.
4. Street musicians and performers are working. They may be local, but they tend not to give out information. They survive on tips, however, so a well-placed dollar bill will often go a long way toward getting the information you need. Same goes for cab drivers, buggy drivers and pedicab drivers.
5. While the hotel concierges are often college students on an internship, Doormen are almost always local and have typically held their jobs for a good long while, often for many years. They are a wealth of information but again, will usually share more with you once you slip them a buck.

New Orleanians are known as a quirky but friendly bunch, and most will go out of their way to help you as long as you ask respectfully and politely. We tend to be very proud and protective of our town, so make sure when you ask a local for directions or advice that you do so with that in mind. Take the time to talk to the locals — you won’t be sorry. We have the information you are looking for, and more as well!

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