We stayed at the Cotton Exchange during Mardi Gras and had a fabulous time. The hotel is about a block away from the French Quarter (in fact, the street turns into Bourbon Street) but you're far enough away that the noise/crowds isn't an issue. The Cotton Exchange is actually a Holiday Inn Express so you get all the dependable "Holiday Inn" features but, at the same time, you're in a historic building with a bit of character, not a just a generic chain hotel. Because we were travelling with a baby, I asked for a quiet room and so we ended up with a weird room in the centre of the building with only fake windows that looked out into the hallway. But because the building is old and not originally intended as a hotel, we let this go. Except for not having any windows (we never knew if it was night or day!), the room itself was quite comfortable. We had a king size bed, nice amenities and they even brought up a mini-fridge for us to keep milk in for the baby. The... more