ROYAL SONESTA HOTEL – NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
I bid you all a fair warning, as this blog will be a condensed four blogs in one. Yet laid out in two parts. Why? Because when writing about the Royal Sonesta, you can’t write just about the hotel itself. Not when it has three, yes “3” landmark destinations on it’s grounds, which I will get to. But first, it’s all about the hotel itself.
My wife Nicole and I in the lobby of the Royal Sonesta on Christmas Eve.
One of my time honored traditions when visiting New Orleans is to stay in a different hotel each visit. Which is sometimes hard to do, since just about every place I’ve stayed at, I would love to return to. However, with a city steeped in such history, with endless amounts of historic hotels, I’ve stuck to my game plan.
The grand courtyard of the Royal Sonesta with all it’s New Orleans charm (photo courtesy of Royal Sonesta).
Long over due, was a stay at the Royal Sonesta New Orleans. Visiting The Big Easy for Christmas seemed to be the perfect fit, and may I say it was. This was the first Christmas for my wife and I away from home, and also one with one of our best friends who decided to join us for the trip.
The lighting of the Royal Sonesta’s balconies during the Holiday season on Bourbon Street (photo courtesy of Royal Sonesta).
When it comes to a hotel, much of the time, location is everything, and it’s hard to beat the Royal Sonesta’s place in the French Quarter. Situated on Bourbon Street, it’s sheer size has it squared in between Bienville Street and Conti Street, and extending down to Royal Street. If you’ve been to New Orleans in the Quarter, than you understand the sheer magnitude of that much space. Some of New Orleans’ great restaurants and bars are all within yards of it. It was no coincidence that my all-time favorite place to eat in Nawlins, Arnaud’s, is right across the street. Oh, and one of my top 5 bars is also across the street, Ye’ Old Absinthe House. If that’s not enough, some great places to eat & drink are located right within the hotel itself, which I started to mention earlier, include Restaurant R’evolution, Desire Seafood & Oyster Bar and Irving Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse.
Looking down to the lobby through the main hall, decked out forthe Holidays.
Back to our stay. The Royal Sonesta is known for its great Holiday decor, and upon arriving, it was quite evident why. It seemed our taxi cab driver knew just where to drop us, so that we would enter the main hallway, which was adorned with magnificent Christmas trees, trimmed as perfectly as can be. Holiday decorations were found everywhere, including life sized nut crackers. We had quite a bit of fun over our stay taking pictures with some of them too.
Nicole and her new friend in the lobby on Christmas Day.
It was hard not to instantly feel the spirit of the Holidays. As my wife and I checked in, I joked that I should of booked a suite. Without hesitation the wonderful lady working the front desk, let me know that a two story, loft suite just had become available. She even offered me a great upgraded rate, so I grabbed it up. She even threw in a complimentary signature, Royal Sonesta Teddy Bear tree ornament. Unfortunately we were a few days late of their famous Teddy Bear Tea Time with the local children, a time honored tradition we hope to finally see next Holiday visit.
A view down the long hallway donned in Christmas fare.
Well we headed to the room, which had a special key to enter the private courtyard for the loft suites, and our bags not only arrived before us, but were brought up the spiral staircase to the bedroom. I felt so bad that the bellhop had done this without us being able to take care of him. A true sign of the service which was about to come our way our entire visit. Here it’s truly about the guest, not staff members waiting with their hand out for a tip.
Our bedroom in the loft of the 2nd story of our Courtyard Suite.
The room? What more can I say but it was a fantastic room. The ground floor had a spacious living room, French Quarter motive furniture with a large couch, a nice easy chair, good size flat screen tvs both upstairs and downstairs, writing desk and so on. That warm home feeling, away from home. Upstairs on the second floor, which I still can’t believe the bellhop brought our large and heavy luggage up there, only because I had a heck of a time getting it down at the end of the trip, lol… was a nice sized bedroom, with a huge comfy king sized bed along with the rooms spacious, elegant bath connected to it. Let’s just say, if you have an opportunity to do an upgrade as we did, a courtyard suite is well worth it. As said, this was a courtyard suite. So there was a small courtyard containing about 4 or 5 suites. A lush little garden, benches and tables, perfect to avoid the noise of the Quarter and relax in. It just added to the authentic New Orleans feel.
A look down to part of the bottom floor of our Courtyard Suite.
I mentioned that a best friend of ours was on this trip with us. Well we booked him the same original room we had planned on staying in, but since we upgraded to the suite we had, we were curious what his room was like. We headed to his after he settled in, and I have to say, it was fantastic. Though size wise, standard, but where our suite was Quarter traditional, his was decorated modern, and recently done. Very high end. Cooler yet, his window opened looking right down on Ye’ Old Absinthe House. Noisier, maybe, but what a view.
Bo and I coming out of the cold on Christmas night, Bloody Mary from Desire in hand.
As I just mentioned about the Royal Sonesta is all about the “service”. Which is not only an old school hotel way, but very traditional New Orleans. Through our entire stay, every employee of the hotel could not of been nicer, let alone helpful. I talked about just checking in, what the young lady at the front desk did for us to the bell hop we never saw. In fact, on Christmas Eve we forgot we never made reservations for a nice dinner. That morning before we ventured off for a stroll around the Quarter, I called down to the concierge to ask about ideas. Of course she pretty much told us we were going to be out of luck, though suggested little places that might be open and to try them, so very helpful. As we made our way down to the lobby, I wasn’t satisfied, though knowing every great place in the Quarter was reserved for Christmas Eve, I asked the same young lady at check-in if she had any ideas. She asked us to hold on a moment, and within minutes, I mean literally a few minutes, pulled off a seating at the new hot spot there, R’evolution. Unbelievable!!! I can’t wait in my “Part 2” on the Royal Sonesta to tell you all about our incredible Christmas Eve dinner there, but you’re going to have to wait.
Myself, Nicole and Bo, heading out for dinner, the evening after Christmas.
Speaking of no where to eat on Christmas Eve, that brings me to the ordeal of a meal on Christmas day, let alone on Christmas night. We pretty much thought our luck had run out after getting treated like royalty for Christmas Eve, that we had no chance for something great on Christmas. Well, what were we thinking, we were staying at the Royal Sonesta after all. Again, the helpful staff all recommended we head over to the Desire Seafood & Oyster Bar, (where we had eaten an early dinner this trip already), well not really heading too far since it’s connected, but we did have to exit the hotel for the entrance. Christmas night was upon us, and there few places open, the tourists and the locals knew. Somehow again, the Sonesta’s staff took care of us, because all we had to do is walk up to the front of the line which was about 30 people deep, and give them my name… the manager just asked if we could wait a minute, and only a couple minutes later, brought us in to be seated. Lucky for us, our same server from our earlier visit was our server again. Which also goes to my Part2 Blog. The point is, the Royal Sonesta AGAIN had taken care of us.
Poolside grounds, by R’Evolution the hotel entrance (photo courtesy of Royal Sonesta).
To wrap things up on the “hotel” itself… The Royal Sonesta New Orleans is more than a hotel, it’s an experience, then, add in staying there at Christmas time, that experience, at least for us, is what true memories are made of. Christmas time, or which ever Holiday you celebrate, that time of year for you, is always precious, but if you chose to come to New Orleans then, this is the place to make you feel as special as any place can.
The Bourbon Street entrance to the Royal Sonesta (photo courtesy of Royal Sonesta).
ROYAL SONESTA HOTEL – NEW ORLEANS
300 Bourbon Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
www.Sonesta.com/RoyalNewOrleans