Trip to New Orleans

First, I would like to give thanks to www.MegaBus.com  for giving major discounts.  By booking my trip weeks ahead, I was able to purchase the tickets online for $10 round trip each.  So for my daughter and I, I only paid $20 for our bus fair.  That left me with spending money.  Yeah!!!

River Walk @ New Orleans

Sunrise at the River walk

Street Car headed to Cemeteries on Canal Street

Cemeteries in New Orleans

Breakfast @ The Ruby Slipper Cafe in New Orleans

3 Little Pigs

St. Charles Royal Hotel

The Bed were awesome

French Quarter @ New Orleans

waiting for food

Taste of New Orleans

met Tina from Mobile Alabama, hey girl!

inside the Troley

plenty of art galleries at the French Quarter

I wish they were close.  I love the crochet wear.

all kinds of wheels shares the Rd

Travel to New Orleans on a budget

I recently traveled to New Orleans and I did it on a budget.  Listed are ways that I saved.

1. I traveled to New Orleans on a bus.  No, not the greyhound but the MegaBus.com.  As millions of Americans know by now that www.MegaBus.com is really inexpensive way to travel.  So, from Macon Georgia to New Orleans (which is about 9 hours ride) it only cost me $10 round trip.  And because I bought two tickets, it only cost me $20 (a ticket for my daughter).  O fcourse, to get the discount price, you do have to book your trip days or even weeks ahead.  I booked mine about 3 weeks ahead.
2. I didn't want to have to spend money on hotel.  So I wanted to make sure that we arrived early and depart late in the evening.  We arrived in New Orleans at 6am and departed at 11:30 in the evening.  That gave us plenty of times to sight see, shop and eat our heart out.  But we did meet this lady, who is also spending a day in New Orleans, on a budget, like we are, and we decided to go split a bill on a hotel, to get fresh up and rest for a couple of hours.  and it turned out perfect.  I logged online on www.priceline.com and was able to get a room for $51 (regular $99) in the heart of New Orleans, ,right downtown, Royal Hotel on St. Charles.
3. Because I saved on transportation cost, I was able to splurge on our dining experience.  So we did spend money there and didn't slouch.  We had two breakfast and dinner.  I knew we were taking a 9 hour trip, so I bought snacks from Walmart (Trail Mix and Springles) to avoid making purchases on our break.  and we did took two 15 minute breaks in Alabama.
4. RESTROOMS - So as we were sight seeing, my daughter had to use the restroom.  But all businesses on Canal St, only offer restrooms to paid customers.  I had to buy a drink for $2 at Arby's so she could have the key to use their restroom.  Later on we found out that we could have just gone inside Sheraton Hotel on Canal St. to use theirs.  And they have Starbucks inside.  which would have solved the problem of our battery running out of juice.  So be sure to have a spare battery, or an instant cell phone charger device to charge your smart phone.  The restaurants didn't have any plugs either.  
5. Trolleys.  We also saved money on Trolleys by purchasing an all day pass for $3 and its valid till 4am.  Instead of paying $1.25 each way.  and believe me, we must have hopped on the Troley atleast 10 times.  

I didn't know anything about New Orleans, so I didn't have an itinerary for this trip.  The good thing is, the trip was only for one day.  and I am planning on returning and this time, I have experienced and knowledge on how to save more and spend less.

What's in my bag - traveling techie

I've been getting lots of request to see what kind of tech gear that I bring with me when I'm traveling.  So here it is.

What I wanted to show you at, towards the end of this video, was how I got a great deal on our bus ticket to New Orleans from Atlanta Georgia.  I purchased the ticket online from www.MegaBus.com for $10 round trip ticket.  The deal is so good, that I purchased two tickets, so my daughter could come too.  By purchasing my ticket online and over 21 days in advance, you can get a great deal and discount on your ticket.  and I'm pretty sure, because we booked the ticket for Monday travel and not the weekends, also help in getting the discount.

Greyhound also offers 21 days advance discounted ticket.  Last week, I traveled to Savannah, from Macon and it cost me $4 for a round trip.  Again booking it 21 days in advance and during the weekdays and not the weekends gets you discount. 

I'm heading to New Orleans on a Greyhound bus tomorrow.  This is what's inside my bag.

1. 15" HP Laptop bag
2. Nook color tablet
3. Nook Simple Touch
4. laptop charger
5. sunglasses
6. Virgin Mobile not so smart cell phone (cause someone recently stole mine) 
7. flat wireless mouse
8. sony cybershot digital camera
9. sd cards and card readers
10. Nook tablets charger
11. inflatable neck pillow, eye shutter and ear plugs
12. toothbrush, deodorant, extra underwear, hair brush
13. headphones (not shown)
14. Large Gorilla tripod - must have
15. Bobble Water Bottle (not shown)