Attending IRE25 on a budget

(April 2, 2025) – At Investigative Reporters and Editors, we are committed to making our conferences affordable. Below, you'll find lots of resources to help make IRE25 budget-friendly.

Conference registration

IRE is proud that while we offer the industry’s best training, we also charge less for registration than most other journalism conferences. You can secure the lowest rate by registering before Monday, April 28 (our early-bird deadline): $100 for students and $375 for most professionals. This year, the cost is just $299 for early-career members, and members who are freelancing or currently unemployed, and only $199 for the first 100 people in the groups who register before the early-bird deadline. Slots are going fast, so act quickly. Pro tip: You can ask your employer or school to foot the bill. Often they will. Register here.

Getting to New Orleans

Three airlines are offering discounts to travelers going to IRE25: Delta, United and Southwest. Typically, these discounts are 5%-10% — not a lot, but enough to make a difference. You can book through links on the IRE Website here. If you live in the South, you can save money by taking a bus or a train. Amtrak has trains from Texas, Atlanta or Memphis for as little as $75.

Ground transportation

IRE is working on arranging discounts for transportation to/from the airport. Details will be posted soon on the IRE Website here. There is a bus that goes to the conference hotel for $1.50, but it can take up to two hours. A taxi will cost a $36 flat rate. To reduce the expense, IRE can help you connect with others arriving and departing around the same time. Find a ride-sharing buddy here. The conference hotel is downtown, and you can travel the area via a streetcar that costs $1.25.

Lodging

This year, the conference hotel rate is reasonable — $199 a night, tied for the lowest since 2018. It’s available until May 27, or until the block is full (whichever occurs first). Many people find it is enormously valuable to stay at the conference hotel, close to the action. Attendees sometimes share rooms to cut costs. IRE can help you find a roommate. Sign up here. For even more cost-saving tips for your stay in The Big Easy, check out Samantha Sunne's advice below.

Cheap eats

The conference will offer several chances for free food: the opening reception on Thursday night (which will be big because it’s the organization’s 50th anniversary), the mentorship breakfast on Friday morning (sign up by June 1) and the awards luncheon on Saturday. Savvy attendees on a budget also can usually find their way to free food at receptions on most of the other nights. Locals also recommend several iconic spots for cheap and delicious food near the hotel, including Killer Poboys on Dauphine Street and Central Grocery on Decatur Street.

Additional details

Here is a full local guide to visiting New Orleans on a budget, from longtime IRE Member Samantha Sunne, a freelance journalist based in the city:

Welcome to New Orleans! Luckily, it's a place that’s easy to feast for eyes, ears and stomach. The 2025 IRE conference is on Canal Street - a boulevard that is picturesque and historic enough to be famous in its own right. In addition to wandering the historic streets, bars and shops, this guide will offer some free, or at least very cheap, activities as well as travel costs.

There are plenty of spots to hear live, local music for free, plus plenty more where you can pay or tip the musicians. Within the limits of the French Quarter, check out Royal Street for street musicians and shops; Decatur for buskers and bars. Bourbon Street is, of course, world-famous for some things, but live music is not its biggest draw.

Frenchmen Street, a little over a mile away on the other side of the Quarter, clusters half a dozen music venues within a few blocks, all playing multiple shows a night. It's also a good spot for late night eats, like hot dogs, fried chicken and tater tots loaded with meat and hot sauce.

The streetcar costs a whopping $1.25 and can take you as far as beautiful Audubon Park. It doesn't go to Frenchmen, but it can take you uptown - the other way. The ride alone can be a treat, as it traverses historic St. Charles Avenue, famous for large mansions. (But beware - transit here isn't known for being punctual, and a trip across the city can take an hour plus each way.)

If you want to stay within walking distance, the city also has plenty to offer in terms of history and cultural learning. The Historic New Orleans Collection is a free, publicly funded museum smack dab in the middle of the Quarter. It's a fantastic entry point to New Orleans and Louisiana culture, including food, history, and culture, as well as current pressing topics like climate change.

The Cabildo and the Presbytere are state-funded museums bookending the famous St. Louis Cathedral, a focal point of the Quarter itself. Unlike the Historic New Orleans Collection, these museums are not free ($11 for adults), but they do offer detailed looks inside of New Orleans cultural touchpoints, like the joys of Mardi Gras, the struggles of Hurricane Katrina and the achievements of the civil rights movement. 

Another upside to the Crescent City, especially around the downtown area, is that hotels are plentiful and typically affordable compared to other cities. Booking.com shows dozens of hotels for $150 or less per night, all within a few blocks of the French Quarter neighborhood. While $150 isn't exactly the cheapest you can possibly stay anywhere, it does give you a ton of options in a dense geographic space.

If $150 is still too steep, there are hostels to choose from, where you can share a bedroom and bathroom with other budgeted, intrepid (and usually young) travellers. Hostelling International, or HI, is a globally known hostel chain located right on Canal Street. If you want a place to sleep without added amenities like your own coffeemaker, a private room in a hostel can be a good choice for about $100 flat. There are other hostels, like the trendy India House, that are farther away but accessible via (slow) public transit.

The next necessary trip expense might be food. Luckily, not only does New Orleans have several cheap lunch options - some of them were invented here.

Beignets - square, powdered, delicious donuts - are famous and work perfectly fine as a breakfast. The famous Cafe du Monde isn't quite as cheap as it used to be - an order of beignets and coffee will run you about $10. They're no longer open 24 hours, either, but the cafe is still a scenic, enormously popular spot overlooking Jackson Square. If du Monde is too crowded, Cafe Beignet is a good second choice. The Royal Street outpost is the most scenic of its several locations.

Poboys - filling, stuffed sandwiches on french bread - have been a mainstay for many years, and are still an easy go-to lunch. Killer Poboys on Dauphine Street is especially popular among locals, but many po boy shops in the FQ will work. If you want a sammie you can't get in many other sandwich shops around the U.S., give a shrimp or oyster a try.

Speaking of sandwiches, the muffuletta is another New Orleans invention—this time thanks to its Italian community. Central Grocery on Decatur Street, near the river, claims to have had and still sells the very first one. The muffuletta is a very large sesame bun stuffed with cheese, salami, and olives. If the menu offers it by the half or quarter, don't worry—that's a lot!

At Napoleon House on Chartres Street, you can find muffulettas and staples like jambalaya, gumbo, red beans, and boudin sausage. Napoleon House is a full-service restaurant, so it's not quite as cheap as some grab-and-go spots, but you can still get in and out for under $20 per person.

This list was compiled with the help of the Affordability Task Force and will be updated with more budget-friendly tips as we have them. If you have advice of your own, share it with us by emailing conference@ire.org.