Day Trips from New Orleans

New Orleans sits at the edge of the Louisiana bayou — one of the most unique ecosystems in North America. Swamp tours, Cajun country, historic plantations, and the Gulf Coast are all within easy reach.

Swamp Tours — 30-60 Minutes

The Louisiana bayou starts just outside the city limits. Airboat and pontoon boat tours navigate through cypress swamp, past alligators, herons, turtles, and Spanish moss-draped trees. It’s a completely different world from the French Quarter — and it’s 30 minutes away.

Cajun Encounters and Airboat Adventures are popular operators. Most tours run 2 hours. Airboats are fast and loud. Pontoon boats are slower and quieter (better for wildlife viewing and photography). Alligator sightings are virtually guaranteed from spring through fall.

River Road Plantations — 45 Minutes West

The Great River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge has some of the most significant and well-preserved plantation properties in the South.

Oak Alley Plantation — The most photographed plantation in Louisiana. A quarter-mile canopy of 300-year-old live oak trees leads to the antebellum mansion. Tours cover both the architectural grandeur and the lives of enslaved people who built and maintained it.

Whitney Plantation — The only plantation museum in Louisiana focused exclusively on the experience of enslaved people. Powerful, sobering, and essential. Guided tours only.

Laura Plantation — A Creole plantation with a focus on the Creole cultural experience, including the origin of the Br’er Rabbit stories (told by enslaved West Africans on this property).

Cajun Country (Lafayette) — 2.5 Hours West

Lafayette is the capital of Cajun Louisiana — a culture of French-speaking Acadians who were expelled from Canada in the 1700s and settled in the Louisiana bayou.

Eat: Boudin (Cajun sausage) from a gas station or meat market (this is a legitimate recommendation — Don’s Specialty Meats and Best Stop are famous). Crawfish boils (seasonal, spring). Cracklins (fried pork skins).

Experience: Vermilionville (living history museum of Cajun and Creole culture), Cajun dance halls (Randol’s has live Cajun and Zydeco music with dancing), and the Atchafalaya Basin (the largest river swamp in America).

Mississippi Gulf Coast — 1.5 Hours East

Biloxi — Casino resorts on the Gulf Coast. The Beau Rivage is the nicest. Biloxi’s seafood (shrimp, oysters, crab) is excellent and cheaper than New Orleans. The Biloxi Lighthouse has survived every hurricane since 1848.

Ocean Springs — Charming arts community next to Biloxi. The Walter Anderson Museum (outsider art) and a walkable downtown with galleries and restaurants.

Baton Rouge — 1.5 Hours West

Louisiana’s capital city. The Old State Capitol (Gothic Revival, built 1847) and the current Art Deco State Capitol (tallest in the US) are both worth visiting. Tiger Stadium at LSU on a football Saturday is one of the most electric atmospheres in American sports.

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