I am attending the second Top Scholars weekend on March 22nd & 23rd and my mom and I are trying to book hotels. I was wondering: should a hotel’s proximity to Tulane be a large factor in our search? We have our eyes on a nice hotel that we both like, but it’s in the business district - not very close to Tulane, and we’d have to take the streetcar to and from places. There are other hotels in the garden district that are closer to Tulane (almost within walking distance), but they aren’t as appealing to us besides their convenient location. Should distance from Tulane be a huge factor in our decision on where to stay? Are the streetcars reliable to use for frequent transportation? Thanks for the help!
When I visited Tulane over the summer, we stayed in a hotel that was walking distance from Tulane’s campus. It wasn’t a fancy hotel by any means, but it was still a nice place to stay. In walking to and from campus, I got to see and experience a lot of New Orleans that I would have missed from a car.
Actually, taking the streetcar is a must as part of your visit, and there are other advantages to staying in the CBD. So by all means do that and enjoy the ride to Tulane and back down to the hotel. Just leave extra time for the streetcar. I would have to say that punctual is not in the vocabulary down there. They are reliable within about 15 minutes of when they say they are supposed to be someplace. But they will definitely come.
Streetcars are not very reliable. They do not really run on any kind of schedule and it takes about 45 minutes to get from downtown to Tulane, depending on time of day. There is a tracker you can download to monitor where the cars are so you know how long you can expect to wait. A cab is about a $15 ride one way. We never stay near Tulane, we prefer to stay in the Quarter. When we went for my sons orientation he took a cab up to the school for the morning of orientation because he had his backpack with clothes/toiletries etc. Then he took a streetcar back to the Quarter the next afternoon when Orientation was over. I went to NOLA with him but did not attend any of the parent orientation sessions, it was a little vacation for me 
I’ll be there too! If I were you I’d use one of the hotels they recommend on their website. They had codes for discounted rates.
@ejs371 we got a great Tulane discount rate at the hotel we found in the business district because it was on their site!
@fergus3 I think you’ve made a good choice. They really don’t program for parents the second day of TSW. Some parents don’t realize that, and seem to spend the second day aimlessly wandering around campus and camped out in the Dean’s office!
With D1, I attended the events the first day, and then left her there for the overnight and the second day’s activities. I came out toward the end of the second day to have coffee with a friend and then D1 and I left for the airport. I plan to do the same with D2. Staying in the CBD makes it easy for me to play downtown the second day. I recommend it!
With respect to streetcar vs. taxi, on the visits with D1 and D2 we did what @dolphnlvr6 described – we took cabs when they had to be on campus at a particular time and took the streetcar when our schedule was more flexible. If you take the streetcar, just allow extra time beyond what’s scheduled.