On Our Radar: Mardi Gras- Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler!

Fat Tuesday is February 16th and the Bacchus parade, considered the grandest of parades, is Sunday night. If you're thinking of heading to New Orleans this year for Mardi Gras but haven't made hotel reservations yet, you're not alone.  After the Saints big win in Sunday's Superbowl, we bet tons of people are itching to hit the Big Easy. Our recommendation is to call around, because there are bound to be a few free hotel rooms and cancellations.

A couple of tips for Mardi Gras:
Expect to see some crazy in the French Quarter. This isn't stuff of urban legends- our friends still talk about the hunk of a man they saw walking in the Quarter with an outfit made of only 5 leather straps or the Elizabeth Taylor drag queen who was biting off chunks of Velveeta.

Want to join the fun? Expect to see lots of flashing, concentrated but not limited to the parade routes.  Don't be shy, you only live once, we may have done some of this ourselves in college.

Debauchery is intrinsic to the celebration, in fact, Fat Tuesday refers to indulging in rich food before lent which begins the next day.  That of course includes drinking.  We can't stress enough that it's a good idea to party in numbers and keep an eye out for each other.  

Here are our picks for places to stay if you can score a room.  Check out the W Hotel French Quarter (pictured above) with its great location, pet-friendly policy, outdoor courtyard pool and lobby lounge. The Mega Rooms (below) have patios on the courtyard:

Or the Hotel Monteleone where Annie stayed for Tales of the Cocktail last summer. It's rumored to be one of America's premiere haunted hotels, Annie didn't see any, although she did experience plenty of ghosts of cocktails past.  The Monteleone also boasts a long list of literary notables that called its rooms home for a spell including Truman Capote, Wm. Faulkner, Anne Rice and John Grisham.  Ernest Hemingway wrote about the revolving Carousel Bar (pictured below):