I will be in the Big Easy the first week of March for a conference, and was wondering where I can go for a nice run without getting into trouble. I am staying on Bourbon and won’t have a car.
Thanks for the help
Matt
Lacking a car, your best bet is to run west to the Garden District. If you leave the Quarter to the west side and cross the Central Business District (downtown), aim for the trolley stop on the other side of the freeway overpass. You’ll go under that and you can follow the neutral ground (median) along the trolley tracks into the Garden District. You’ll see a lot of the Tulane and Loyola kids running there. Ask at the hotel desk.
A shorter run is to go south from the Quarter to the Aquarium. Once you’re on the riverfront, go east. At the end of the levee, you’ll hop down into the parking lot, cross the railroad tracks, and climb up onto the Poland Street Warf (look for the big warehouses, which, incidentally, are where most crewes keep their Mardi Gras floats). Once on the warf, follow that along the river front towards the large gray Military Sealift Command ships/the large gray warehouse looking buildings beside them. That’s the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve headquarters complex. Turn around there and run back to the Quarter. I DO NOT recommend going into the local neighborhoods over there–the Bywater District isn’t too nice, but you’ll be safe on the warf.
If you can get a car, the other nice option is to take Canal north, all the way to Lake Ponchartrain. That’s the Lakeview area (where I used to live). Lakefront part runs from there all the way east to the Hickey Bridge–this is where the GNO Tri club rides and runs. Recommend running on top of the levee for the best viewing, both of the lake and the nice neighborhoods (Lakeview, Lakeshores, Lake Vista) that are coming back to life after the horrors of Katrina.
Scott had some good ideas. You could also take streetcar uptown (along St. Charles) from Canal Street and run back. It’s about 4 miles from Audubon Park/Tulane Univ. Audubon Park is about a 2 mile run (around main loop in park between St. Charles and Mazazine), which I highly recommend. If it’s a nice day lots of folks will be out, I think it’s a real cool place. You can make it a longer loop run by running around the zoo out and along the river.
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Thanks for the tips I think 4-5 miles per day will be fine.