“Anniversary Stay at the Cottages - With a two day agenda. :-)”
My wife and I stayed here a couple of nights for our 31st anniversary trip. We are 49, active, travel at least a few times a year. We party in moderation (almost always home by midnight) and like spending time together, and love good food.
This is a pretty quick review of the property and I would highly recommend it.
I chose this property based on some of the reviews I read, and wanted the experience to be a little different and bit more special than a standard high end room. I have stayed in New Orleans a number of times over the last few years including properties like The Monteleone, The International House, various Hilton properties, and few other properties over the years. I can honestly say this was one of the best properties I have stayed in recently anywhere.
I had originally called reservations to ask about the Hermann House, but after talking to the reservation lady, who was exceptionally helpful and nice, I decided to book Cottage 7 which is a one room cottage with a shared courtyard. The cottages offer a "French Quarter Butler", which I am not 100% certain all of the things they can do for you but, I received an email a couple of days before our trip from "Jeffery" asking if there is anything they could help arrange and what time they should expect us. I responded that I had already taken care of our arrangements, and we should be there around 4pm.
So..... We arrive to checkin at the Hotel Dauphine and checked our car in with the valet. Parking is expensive at $30 a night, but that seems to be the cost everywhere around that area. We were greeted by a very friendly hotel staff and check in was very quick. We were assigned Cottage 3 instead of Cottage 7, which is a two room cottage with a private courtyard. We were pointed the way to the cottages and given directions as the concierge was escorting another couple to their cottage which is a couple of blocks down the road. On our way the concierge found us and escorted us the rest of the way to our cottage.
The Cottages share a locked entrance where when you enter, you walk into a walk way with the pool area right in front of you. Cottage 3 was the first cottage on the right down the walkway. You open a wooden privacy gate, which enters into the private laid brick courtyard. The courtyard is pretty large and has only a fountain on the wall in front of the front door and an umbrella table with 4 chairs.
We were greeted with a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us which was a very nice surprise. The Cottage itself had a lot of charm and was decorated very well with what I would call Antique New Orleans, I am sure there is a name for the decor, but I don't know what it is.... To give an example, the coffee maker was a Keurig (With an assortment of coffee) inside an antique Armoire. There was also waters, and an assortment of sodas in a two drawer Sub-Z (Nice).
The living room was nice with a dining table with 4 chairs, a desk, a couch and two chairs. There was a Flat Screen on the wall over the desk. I wouldn't really call it comfortable for lounging and watching TV, but it was decorated very nice. We used the table for the continental breakfasts they served in the morning.
The bedroom was very nice, very quiet, with a very comfortable bed. I think I read the mattresses were tempurpedic, but I am pretty sure it was not (We have one and it was nothing like ours). Still it was comfortable, and they use very high end linens including the towels in the bathrooms (All thick, white, and warm).
Breakfast was delivered and setup outside in the courtyard at the requested time. It was and assortment of cereals, pastries, yogurts, and fruits with an air pot of Community Coffee (Which is excellent!). There was nothing hot, but it was nice. My only complaint is that it was setup outside and the temperature was in the 30's. We just went out and grabbed it and brought it back into our room. We did the same thing the second day.
Not everything was perfect, but it was close.
Breakfast was delivered an hour early on the second day. There wasn't anything hot, so it may have been intentional as everything would keep fine.
The bathroom does not have a tub and the water seeps out of the walk in shower onto the main bathroom floor. Not really a big deal.
One of the rooms had a painted portrait (Think Napoleon) looking right at the bed (little creepy for me). We slept in the other room. :-)
No room safe either.
This was only a part of a trip I planned for our anniversary.
We went to Delmonico's our first evening, and then had a couple of drinks at Fat Catz on Bourbon St. which has a great band. We called it an early evening and headed back to the room. The room did have an iPhone dock for romantic music.
The following day after our breakfast we went to the World War 2 museum which Is really becoming a huge attraction with multiple new buildings and a 4d movie narrated by Tom Hanks.
We had lunch a Luke's (Incredible as always) and then went to get ready for the Greyline Haunted walking tour around the quarter (I wouldn't recommend). We then called it an early evening and skipped our plan to go to the casino.
We left for home the next day after our breakfast and a quick run to Central grocery to get a muffaletta (Yummmm) to take home, which I would also highly recommend!!!
All in all a great place to stay, with a great staff and we will be back.
Hope this helps someone....
Best regards,
-Todd-
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.