Things to Do in Louisiana
Ten stops that skip New Orleans on purpose, since it's got its own dedicated page, and head instead toward swamp tours, plantation history, and a food scene that runs considerably beyond the French Quarter.
New Orleans already has its own page on this site, so this list heads elsewhere, Cajun country, real bayou wilderness, and a stretch of plantation history that deserves proper, honest context rather than a glossed-over tour. Ten stops below, plus a quiz elsewhere on this site if you fancy testing what stuck.
Atchafalaya Basin Swamp Tours
The largest wetland and swamp in the United States, a properly vast, largely untouched ecosystem of bald cypress forest and open water home to alligators, herons, and a considerable amount of birdlife. Guided boat tours run from several small towns bordering the basin, most led by local Cajun guides who grew up on this water and know it in real, practical detail.
Morning tours tend to offer the best wildlife spotting, alligators are more active before the day heats up, an early start pays off if seeing them is the priority.
Best time March-October for the most active wildlife
Address Atchafalaya Basin, near Breaux Bridge, LA
Lafayette & Cajun Country
Lafayette sits at the heart of Acadiana, the region settled by Acadian exiles deported from Canada in the 18th century, whose culture, food, and music still define this part of the state distinctly from New Orleans. Vermilionville, a living history museum recreating an 18th-century Cajun and Creole settlement, runs costumed demonstrations alongside properly good on-site Cajun food.
Live zydeco and Cajun music runs in local dance halls most weekends, seek one out specifically, this is a real, ongoing local tradition rather than a tourist performance.
Hours Tue-Sun, roughly 10am-4pm
Address 300 Fisher Rd, Lafayette, LA
Oak Alley Plantation
A former sugar plantation known for its striking quarter-mile canopy of live oak trees planted in the early 1700s, the mansion itself now runs tours covering both the plantation's history and, essential to any honest visit, the lives and labour of the enslaved people who worked here. The site includes a dedicated exhibit on slavery at Oak Alley, prioritise it alongside the mansion tour rather than treating the estate purely as scenic architecture.
This history deserves real weight and attention, approach the visit with that context in mind rather than focusing solely on the oak trees themselves, however striking they are.
Hours Daily, roughly 9am-5pm
Address 3645 Louisiana Hwy 18, Vacherie, LA
St. Francisville & the Felicianas
A small historic town in Louisiana's hill country, notably different terrain from the flat delta land most of the state is known for, rolling hills and antebellum architecture that survived the Civil War largely intact. Rosedown Plantation, now a state historic site, runs tours covering its formal gardens alongside the same honest context on enslaved labour found at the more prominent sites nearby.
The Myrtles Plantation, marketed heavily as one of the most haunted houses in the country, runs both historical and ghost-focused tours, pick based on which angle interests you more.
Hours Daily, roughly 9am-5pm
Address St. Francisville, LA
Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge
At 34 storeys, the tallest state capitol building in the country, built in the early 1930s under Governor Huey Long, whose assassination in the building's own corridors remains one of the more dramatic chapters of state political history. An observation deck on the 27th floor gives sweeping views over Baton Rouge and the Mississippi River, free and open to the public most days.
The bullet holes from Long's 1935 assassination are still visible in the marble near the site of the shooting, worth knowing before visiting for the added context.
Hours Daily, roughly 8am-4.30pm
Address 900 N 3rd St, Baton Rouge, LA
Mardi Gras in Lafayette
Lafayette runs one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in the state outside New Orleans itself, with a considerably more family-oriented atmosphere and properly local parades that draw regional crowds without the scale of the French Quarter's version. The Krewe of Bonaparte and several other local krewes run parades throughout the days leading up to Fat Tuesday.
This works well for families specifically who want the Mardi Gras experience without the more adult-oriented atmosphere New Orleans is often associated with, a solid alternative if travelling with kids.
Best time The weeks leading up to Ash Wednesday
Address Downtown Lafayette, LA
Breaux Bridge, the Crawfish Capital
Officially designated the Crawfish Capital of the World by the state legislature, Breaux Bridge hosts an annual Crawfish Festival each May, complete with cooking competitions, live Cajun and zydeco music, and properly enormous quantities of crawfish consumed over the weekend. Outside festival dates, local restaurants throughout the small town serve crawfish boils, etouffee, and other Cajun staples year-round.
Eating crawfish properly involves a fair amount of hands-on shell-cracking and sucking the heads, watch a local do it once before attempting your own technique.
Best time Early May for the Crawfish Festival
Address Breaux Bridge, LA
The National WWII Museum
Considered by many the most significant WWII museum in the country, designated by Congress as the country's official WWII museum, holding an extensive collection covering the war's full scope, from training and manufacturing through to the major campaigns themselves. A 4D film narrated by Tom Hanks runs regularly, and the Higgins boat exhibit covers the New Orleans-manufactured landing craft that proved properly essential to the D-Day invasion.
This runs considerably larger than most visitors expect, allow a full day if you want to properly cover the whole museum rather than rushing through select exhibits.
Hours Daily, roughly 9am-5pm
Address 945 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA
Poverty Point World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site built by Indigenous peoples roughly 3,400 years ago, a series of massive earthen mounds and ridges arranged in a distinctive concentric pattern, one of the most significant prehistoric sites in North America. The visitor centre covers what's known about the society that built this, a considerably older, less-visited counterpart to sites like Cahokia Mounds in Illinois.
A driving tour loops around the main mounds, a solid stop even for visitors without a deep interest in archaeology, the scale of the earthworks alone is properly striking.
Hours Wed-Sun, roughly 9am-5pm
Address 6859 Highway 577, Pioneer, LA
Jambalaya, Gumbo & Cajun Cooking
Louisiana's food culture splits broadly between Creole and Cajun traditions, gumbo and jambalaya both exist in countless regional variations, and asking a local which version is correct tends to open up a properly heated conversation. Boudin, a Cajun sausage made with rice and pork, is sold at gas stations and small markets throughout Cajun country, worth trying despite the unassuming setting it's often found in.
Prudhomme's Cajun Cafe in Lafayette, run by relatives of celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme, remains one of the more established, well-regarded spots for a proper introduction to the wider cuisine.
Address Prudhomme's Cajun Cafe, 4676 NE Evangeline Thruway, Carencro, LA
Best time to visit Louisiana
March through May and October through November cover the most comfortable weather for this list, mild enough for the outdoor stops without summer's serious heat and humidity.
Early May specifically suits Breaux Bridge's Crawfish Festival, and the weeks before Ash Wednesday line up with Mardi Gras season, plan around either if it interests you.
Getting around Louisiana
A car is essential, the distances between Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and the northern part of the state run into several hours, this is a state best covered with your own transport.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Louisiana worth visiting beyond New Orleans?
- Yes, easily, Cajun country and the Atchafalaya Basin both offer a completely different picture of the state's culture and landscape than the French Quarter alone.
- How many days do you need in Louisiana beyond New Orleans?
- Five days gives a comfortable pace to cover Lafayette, a swamp tour, and either the plantation country or Baton Rouge.
- Is Louisiana expensive to visit?
- No, generally affordable, food and accommodation both run below the national average outside of Mardi Gras season specifically.
- What's the best Louisiana trip for kids?
- The National WWII Museum and a swamp tour both rank as the most reliably engaging stops for older kids on this list.
That's ten decent slices of a state that runs a lot deeper than one city's French Quarter.
A note before you plan around this: prices, opening hours, booking requirements and admission details in this guide were correct at the time of writing, but venues change these often and sometimes without notice. Always check directly with the attraction or its official website before you travel or build a schedule around a specific time or price.
Before travelling to any destination featured on this site, please also check your government's latest travel advice, as safety situations, entry requirements and travel warnings can change.
