New Orleans St Patricks day..What to do?

[VikkiGarcia]

We will arrive Thursday March 15 and stay 3 nights at the Embassy suites before our cruise March 18. I found online that there is a few St. Pat's festivities. Do you recommend the parade? Should the French Quarter be avioded that evening? Are the crowds rediculously huge? We plan to walk everywhere( we do alot of walking when we visit any european city) Do all streets have sidewalks? I know it is a bit of a ways from our hotel to the quarter. We will always keep our gaurd up but are we asking for trouble? Thanks for all insight!!!

[zydecocruiser]

St Patrick's and St Joseph's are big - heck -any excuse for a party, especially in the irish Channel, but not huge.

 

Some of last years events are still posted:

http://www.nola.com/stpatricks/index.ssf

 

Parasol's is ground zero.

http://www.parasols.com/index.php

[map70065]

We will arrive Thursday March 15 and stay 3 nights at the Embassy suites before our cruise March 18. I found online that there is a few St. Pat's festivities. Do you recommend the parade? Should the French Quarter be avioded that evening? Are the crowds rediculously huge? We plan to walk everywhere( we do alot of walking when we visit any european city) Do all streets have sidewalks? I know it is a bit of a ways from our hotel to the quarter. We will always keep our gaurd up but are we asking for trouble? Thanks for all insight!!!

 

I personally love the St. Pat's/St. Joseph's parades. There are really two types of St. Pat's/St. Joe's parades. Walking ones (like in the French Quarter) with different Irish groups walking - bands, etc. Truck parades (like on the avenue and in Metairie) are big floats with memebers tossing beads, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, etc.

 

The Irish don't really congregate in the Quarter or on Bourbon Street on St. Pat's - they go to Parasol's in the Irish Channel. Yes, all the streets have sidewalks - and the French Quarter is usually full of people walking around. It's actually easier to walk there then to drive because the streets are very narrow.

[VikkiGarcia]

Thanks Map! How early would you guess you need to arrive at the truck parade route to get a decent spot?

[map70065]

Thanks Map! How early would you guess you need to arrive at the truck parade route to get a decent spot?

 

The float parade routes are pretty long, so you can usually find a spot pretty easily. Ya just have to know when they start and about when they'll arrive where you want to be - and then how to get there (traffic can get tied up a bit). The routes are usually printed in the newspaper the morning of the parade.