PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

The Royal Sonesta brags that it never closed, providing refuge during and after Katrina, bless its heart. (Anderson Cooper stayed here!) As one of the classiest hotels in the Quarter, the contrast between the boisterous hurly-burly of Bourbon Street and the Sonesta's marbled and chandeliered lobby couldn't be greater. Inside, all is quiet and gracious, and if your room faces the courtyard (complete with a large pool), you are in another world altogether. Big and bustling (a favorite of business travelers, so it always seems busy), this is considered the only acceptable, top-flight Bourbon Street hotel, though noise is still a problem in rooms that face Bourbon (or even the side streets). But because the Sonesta is so large, reaching nearly to Royal Street, unless you do have one of those rooms, you won't believe you are so close to such craziness. Rooms underwent a major renovation a couple of years ago, adding posher bedspreads and the like, but the designers miscalculated by including an enormous combo armoire/TV cabinet -- leaving scant few inches between it and the end of the king-size beds. The bathrooms gleam with marble and tile, but don't bring a cat inside if you want to swing it. Note: This is the best place in the Quarter to catch a cab; they line up at the corner.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's New Orleans 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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