Private Airboat Ride and Plantations Tour with Gourmet Lunch from New Orleans

2 hrs

You'll start your day driving out to Cajun Country, where you'll go through wild cypress swamps, over the Mississippi River on an impressive suspended bridge, and along vast sugarcane fields, as the guide tells a unique story of the odyssey of the Cajun people. Next you'll take a narrated private airboat tour (about 1.5 hours) on winding bayous in remote cypress swamps. Your High-Speed Airboat provides a thrilling ride as you comfortably glide over marshes and into deep, secluded bayous. Your Cajun guide, also an alligator hunter and fur trapper, will share his knowledge of the swamp including reptile habits, healing plants and exotic birds. After this peaceful ride, explore his picturesque swamp zoo on Bayou Boeuf.

2 hr

Next visit Laura, a Creole Plantation and her historic slave quarters surrounded by sugar cane fields. The guided tour (may be non-private) transports you with dramatic detail into the charmed yet tragic lives of four generations of Creole owners and their slaves.

3 hrs

After a short drive from Laura Plantation, you'll settle into a seated lunch in Houmas House' elegant dining room. After lunch, walk through the 250 year history of this estate and how a succession of owners and the Mississippi River grew this modest manor house into the estate it is today. A collection of art, furniture, and antique artifacts help tell the story of plantation life. 38 acres of gardens surround the mansion.