San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans. Ideas and thoughts?

[Universal VR]

OH and I have decided to do a trip as above in April next year. Our initial thoughts are to fly into Houston, stay overnight near the airport and head off early the next morning for San Antonio. We would then travel back to Houston and on to New Orleans, flying home from there. Although we would be going back on ourselves, the driving times are more manageable doing it that way. We now have to decide how many days to spend in each city. Does anyone have any recommendations or thoughts? On the list, so far, are the Six Flags theme park in SA, The Alamo, Galveston, Sam Houston Park and Oak Alley Plantation. We like history, I love old architecture and I’m as happy as Larry if I’m walking around old houses. OH goes along with it but probably wouldn’t want to do too many. It will be a two week trip as that’s the maximum we can take off work at one time. Thanks in advance.

[ClaireNJ]

Hi we flew from Orlando to New Orleans half way through our stay, we did like it, loved the French Quarter, a lot of drunks & homeless around, it seems like that all over the USA.
We stayed at Chateau lemoyne Holiday Inn, great position for everything.
Streetcars were great too

We did the Mississippi Steam Boat, the Swamp Tour & Ghost Tour, loved it all
Best breakfast Ruby Slipper
Enjoy 🇺🇸

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Originally Posted by Universal VR

We now have to decide how many days to spend in each city.

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14 days.
Fly into Houston, stay first three nights there.
Drive to Austin, stay there three nights. Visit San Antonio from Austin. (We stay in San Antonio to visit Austin). There is more in Austin.
Alternatively, stay two nights in Austin, then drive to San Antonio, stay there two nights.
That uses up your first six nights or so on that side.

Drive to New Orleans with an overnight stop on the way so you arrive late morning, early afternoon.
Depending on whether you'll enjoy NOLA at it's busiest or prefer it a little quieter, make a point of being there Saturday night, Sunday afternoon (busy) or get there Monday onwards (quieter). Weekdays are generally much cheaper.
Stay four nights in New Orleans, possibly five, there's plenty to do, especially if you take tours.
Stay your last night in Houston before flying home.

[Universal VR]

Originally Posted by Pino_Spetzberg

14 days.
Fly into Houston, stay first three nights there.
Drive to Austin, stay there three nights. Visit San Antonio from Austin. (We stay in San Antonio to visit Austin). There is more in Austin.
Alternatively, stay two nights in Austin, then drive to San Antonio, stay there two nights.
That uses up your first six nights or so on that side.

Drive to New Orleans with an overnight stop on the way so you arrive late morning, early afternoon.
Depending on whether you'll enjoy NOLA at it's busiest or prefer it a little quieter, make a point of being there Saturday night, Sunday afternoon (busy) or get there Monday onwards (quieter). Weekdays are generally much cheaper.
Stay four nights in New Orleans, possibly five, there's plenty to do, especially if you take tours.
Stay your last night in Houston before flying home.

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I was thinking we would fly back from New Orleans to save driving back to Houston.

[Universal VR]

Originally Posted by ClaireNJ

Hi we flew from Orlando to New Orleans half way through our stay, we did like it, loved the French Quarter, a lot of drunks & homeless around, it seems like that all over the USA.
We stayed at Chateau lemoyne Holiday Inn, great position for everything.
Streetcars were great too

We did the Mississippi Steam Boat, the Swamp Tour & Ghost Tour, loved it all
Best breakfast Ruby Slipper
Enjoy 🇺🇸

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I’ve heard Bourbon Street should be avoided at night? We found homelessness very bad in San Francisco. They constantly approached us and followed us up the road. One even asked OH for his shoes!

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Originally Posted by Universal VR

I was thinking we would fly back from New Orleans to save driving back to Houston.

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Oops apologies !
Read that but forgot that's the plan.

Whenever we have checked flight cost and availability it's never worked out for us to fly into or out of New Orleans.

{Driving is listed on Google Maps as 5 h 27 min (347.9 mi)
via I-10 W}

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Originally Posted by Universal VR

I’ve heard Bourbon Street should be avoided at night? We found homelessness very bad in San Francisco. They constantly approached us and followed us up the road. One even asked OH for his shoes!

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Erm, almost feel silly posting this but it's a 'thing' in New Orleans to be stopped in the street and they ask you to take a bet they know where you got your shoes.
If you agree they reply yo' shoes on yo' feet!

Bourbon Street is very lively at night, can't see any reason to avoid it for safety reasons. I realise some may find it isn't to their taste, but we like it. It's also very heavily policed, all the way from Canal Street down as far as Le Richelieu.
Having been to both several times, I would say SF is far the worse, for aggressive, panhandling, and general begging. If you consider the worst part of SF is probably Tenderloin, the French Quarter is more like a party version of Fisherman's Wharf ie mostly tourists, and police.


Where you need to exercise caution is being away from the crowds, plan your route home, if late at night. Ideally stay at Hotel Monteleone or one of the other FQ hotels then you can just walk into your hotel lobby.

[Ridersmom]

I go to Houston often (my grandchildren are there). It and most of Texas is hot and Houton is worse than Florida.

If you can get to Austin, do it. It is IMHO the best city in Texas.

There aren't a lot of old homes in Texas. Austin has the state house and interesting areas around it.

My focus in Houston is the grandchildren so we spend a lot of time in museums, which are not only a fun experience but cool. The museum district is lovely and the zoo and Hermann Park are fun. Hermann Park is nice for a walk providing the weather isn't too hot. Rice Uiversity (my son and daughter in law's alma mater) haas a beautiful campus with an aboretum.. It is close to Hermann Park and the museums.

HOuston has lots of professional sports and the tickets are reasonable or at least much less expensive than Boston.

I haven't spent a lot of time in San Antonio and have been there mostly in the summer so it is very hot.

There are bridges in Houston and Austin which have large bat colonies living under them. It is fun to go watch them leave for their night time feeding. They exit en masse but at certain times of the year, they do not exit (when mothers are with their new borns.

[WileyCoyote]

Originally Posted by Universal VR

I’ve heard Bourbon Street should be avoided at night? We found homelessness very bad in San Francisco. They constantly approached us and followed us up the road. One even asked OH for his shoes!

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Hi. We have never had any problems on Bourbon Street. Yes it gets rammed full at times with people but mostly all having a good time. We stay at the opposite end to Canal Street so find it’s a little quieter , the further along you go the more hectic it can be.

Never had any hassle in NOLA. Found San Fran and Nashville much worse in terms of over assertive approaches. It’s on par with what I see in London . Desperately sad really wherever you are.

The people we spoke to on the streets in New Orleans were all very friendly.

There are hustlers on Canal Street and Decatur mostly wanting you to buy CDs but we didn’t find them aggressive.

The back streets off New Orleans centre do look intimidating though as we took a taxi through them one night. I wouldn’t be going through them at night on foot or without a large group. They did make me nervous. Stick to the main areas and it should be fine. Like most big cities I guess.

Fabulous place. Truly unique. Love it !

[Universal VR]

Thank you all for your help. I think I’ll look further in Austin. Last year we did Myrtle Beach, Charleston, St Augustine and Orlando and found living out of a suitcase a bit of a hassle. We were desperate to ‘unpack’ when we got to Orlando. That’s one of the reasons for having just three stops for longer periods in each. That said, we don’t want to waste days wandering around with nothing to do/see.