1024 Rue Chartres, New Orleans, LA 70016, 504-581-4995,
Rates: Standard rooms start at $79 a night in the heat of the summer and soar to $239 during Mardi Gras. Parking is $18 a day.
Stay here if you: want a modernized, reasonably priced room in a historic French Quarter hotel. A bonus: Hotel Provincial is one of the few French Quarter hotels that have not only a swimming pool big enough to do laps in but also another, more intimate pool. But beware: The pools aren’t heated and can be a little too refreshing in winter and spring.
It’s close to: Everything. Six blocks from the Bourbon Street action, four blocks to Jackson Square, two blocks to the French Market and about a mile to the St. Charles streetcar line, downtown and the convention center. Three miles to the garden district and uptown. And if you’re a celebrity stalker, the hotel is only three blocks from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s house.
The rooms are: furnished with antiques and decorated with 19th-century- style wallpaper and artwork, but with modern updates such as cable TV and free wireless Internet. The only minus is the bathrooms. They’re clean, but there’s only so much that can be done to posh up an old bathroom.
They put all of the money into: the award-winning Restaurant Stella and the charming courtyard with fountain, wrought-iron furniture and lush greenery.
The bottom line: The hotel consists of five buildings that have been through numerous incarnations the past 200 years, including a military hospital, hardware store and slave quarters. Combining this mishmash into a workable hotel must have been a challenge, but Hotel Provincial pulls it off. It’s a good option for people who prefer to be in the quieter part of the French Quarter.
Vicky Uhland
