bugsy running on lone rock beach with the airstream and f-150 in the background

Trip planning: Quick Southeast lollipop in January

This planning post was for a trip down through the Southeast to New Orleans in January 2020.

Bugsy at the beach

Needing to be in Atlanta in January is a good excuse to un-winterize the Airstream and spend a couple weeks in warmer climes. Here’s what we’re thinking for maximizing sunshine, nature, food, and drink:

As you know if you read this blog, our priorities include dog-friendly outdoor activities, creative food, and good beer. If you have similar interests, read on, and if you have advice, please comment!

St Augustine

We always start our research by reading travel articles, and give particular weight to NYT. Here’s a recent one on St Augustine.

Food

  • Osprey Tacos
  • Crave Food Truck
  • The Floridian
  • La Herencia for the best cafe con leche
  • Mango Mango’s?

Breweries

We’re not exited about any of these, no offense:

  • Dog Rose (central)
  • Ancient City (central)
  • Bog (slightly west) – had a hazy IPA in early Dec at least
  • Old Coast (slightly east)

Cocktails

  • Ice Plant
  • Odd Birds (for food too!)
  • Sarbez! (for beer: dive bar with craft beer and grilled cheese)

Activities

St George Island / Apalachicola

Here’s a really old NYT 36 Hours article on Apalachicola.

Food

  • Indian Pass Raw Bar – 34 mins west of our campground; from NYT article
  • Oysters! (close to St Vincent Island if we go to hike)
  • Owl Cafe (Apalachicola) – NYT said get reservation; not overwhelmed by web research, although Tripadvisor has it high; there is also a “Tap Room”
  • Weber’s Little Donut Shop (St G) – AM only (Tripadvisor top restaurant)
  • Cafe Con Leche (St G)- coffee and real food
  • The Station Raw Bar (Apalachicola) – highly rated Tripadvisor and Google

Breweries

  • Eastpoint – 2.5 mi from campground, on water, has hazy IPAs
  • Oyster City – 9 mi from campground; hard to tell, but doesn’t look great

Activities

New Orleans

Lonely Planet article

48 Hours in New Orleans

Food

lunch

dinner

  • Compere Lapin – another Beard winner
  • Justine (another Beard winner) looks to be a cool French Quarter location with good ambiance; smaller plates look good
  • Maypop: Asian-Cajun fusion

Breweries

These are the breweries we’re most interested, based on J’s research:

  • Brieux Carré Brewing Co
  • Second Line Brewing
  • Beer Lab
  • The Courtyard Brewery (south)
  • Urban South (south)
  • Miel Brewing (south)
  • NOLA Brewing Tap Room

Cocktails

Activities

(We’ve been to New Orleans a couple times so have done a lot of the usual tourist stuff)

  • D-Day Museum
  • New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
  • picnic at The Fly
  • drink at Snake and Jake’s dive bar
  • jazz show at preservation hall
  • walk thru Besthoff Sculpture garden
  • visit music box village
  • creepy chapel at St Roch cemetery
  • run in crescent park
  • walking tours

Comments

8 responses to “Trip planning: Quick Southeast lollipop in January”

  1. elizabeth a sheeran Avatar
    elizabeth a sheeran

    Poor Bugsy looks like an abandoned doggie…ao sad!

  2. Uncle Jim Avatar
    Uncle Jim

    Getting your recommendations from the New York Times is sorta like asking the devil if hell is a nice place… You must upgrade your sources of information. I think you probably found St. Augustine something of a bore unless you really enjoy being a tourist in a rather hyped up old place… I mean you’re so young now what do you need the fountain of youth for?? Now that is definitely something I should have paid more attention to on my three visits to the place.. As for New Orleans, I’ll just say, what you don’t know, you probably don’t want to know… Quite the place, just be sure Bugsy is close by and J is not far away..
    As for that other place Apalachicola or whatever I’m sure you guys turned it into a rocking fun in the sun destination.
    Hope you enjoyed it all and are looking forward to going a bit further south soon.

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  4. […] off the bat, we saw a few options: Less driving but less warmth in SC and GA; beaches and sunshine in FL with potentially a million other RVers; and a long-distance adventure to […]

  5. […] were in St Augustine as part of our Southeast Lollipop trip in January 2020. Read about our second visit in 2022 […]

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