Things to do in

Vacherie

Experience 2 typical Louisiana features—plantation homes and bayous—on a guided day trip from New Orleans with hotel pickup. Tour Oak Alley Plantation, with entry tickets, included, and look out for wildlife on a boat trip through the swamplands. Start with a pickup from your French Quarter hotel. Head out of New Orleans and travel to Oak Alley Plantation, one of the best-known in the area. Built in 1837-39, the plantation is famous for its alley of 28 evenly spaced live oak trees. Take a guided tour of the historical plantation and gain an educational insight into the times of slavery. Afterward, enjoy a fully narrated boat tour of the swamps. Keep a lookout for alligators, turtles, water birds, and other local wildlife. Listen as your captain tells stories of local Cajun and Creole history, and the people who live in the Bayou area. Finish your tour with the return journey to New Orleans, where you’ll be dropped off at your French Quarter hotel.

Feel the gentle breeze of Southern hospitality while being transported to the Old South. This half-day guided tour reveals the exclusive and fascinating stories behind the old historic New Orleans. Oak Alley is one of the most photographed plantations; it has been the setting for motion pictures such as “Interview with a Vampire" and “Primary Colors.” This visit is a fantastic educational tour to experience with friends or family. After exploring the plantation, treat yourself to a refreshing snack at the on-site café and ice cream parlor. End your tour whilst enjoying the views of live oak trees stretching from the mansion to the gently flowing Mississippi River.

Discover Louisiana on a guided day trip from New Orleans to the historical Oak Alley Plantation, with entry tickets included, and a bayou airboat ride. Benefit from round-trip transportation from your New Orleans hotel. Start your experience with hotel pickup, and relax on the drive to Oak Alley Plantation. Enjoy a guided tour of the plantation home by guides in period dress while you hear and learn about the times of slavery.  Take in the house's Greek Revival architecture, the antique farm equipment exhibits, and walk around the grounds where 28 evenly spaced, huge oak trees grow. Browse the blacksmith shop and souvenir shop, or stop for a snack (at your own expense) in the restaurant. Continue onto Barataria Basin for an airboat tour of the bayou swamplands, where your local captain will guide you through the swamps, marshes, and lakes. Travel at high speeds for an exciting ride, then slow down to spot local wildlife on this exciting airboat experience. Look out for alligators, birds, and other animals. Every airboat tour is unique, so you never know what you’ll see. Even in winter — when alligators hibernate — you’ll have a good chance of spotting these reptiles.  Back on dry land, return to the bus for the drive back to New Orleans, where you’ll finish off your trip with a convenient drop-off back at your hotel.

In 2014, Whitney Plantation opened its doors to the public for the first time in its 262-year history, as the only plantation museum in Louisiana with a focus on slavery.  Gain a unique perspective on the enslaved people who lived and worked here through museum exhibits, memorial artwork, restored buildings, and hundreds of first-person slave narratives. The early owners of Habitation Haydel, later known as the Whitney Plantation, became wealthy producing indigo before the plantation transitioned to sugar in the early 1800s.  Whitney is also significant because of the number of historic outbuildings which were added to the site over the years, thus providing a unique perspective on the evolution of the Louisiana working plantation. The Big House is one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish Creole architecture and one of the earliest raised Creole cottages in Louisiana.  The Whitney Plantation Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places. As a site of memory and consciousness, this site pays homage to the slaves on the plantation itself and to all of those who lived elsewhere in the United States.

Benefit from pick-up at your accommodation in New Orleans, and then make your way to the Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie. Located on the banks of the Mississippi River, Oak Alley was named for the 28 huge oak trees that line the road leading up to – and pre-dating – the plantation house. Admire the Greek Revival architecture of the house, built in the 19th century for one of the wealthiest families of the South. See original features, including antique farm machinery, and avail of amenities such as a restaurant and souvenir shop. Be led by a guide wearing authentic plantation-style clothes and hear about the first example of Antebellum restoration along the legendary River Road.

No other New Orleans sightseeing package can compare to the incredible choice, convenience, and value of the Go City pass. Your New Orleans All-Inclusive Pass includes admission to a variety of the most popular things to do in New Orleans, including French Quarter attractions, as well as surrounding Louisiana attractions. When you visit each location with your All-Inclusive Pass, the admission has already been taken care of. You simply follow the instructions in the guide and present your Go City pass to enter. You don’t have to wait and pay over and over again. The low price of the New Orleans All-Inclusive Pass includes savings off of the admission fees you’d pay if you purchased your New Orleans attraction tickets individually at each location. Activities, attractions, and tours included with the New Orleans All-Inclusive Pass: Tours and Cruises • Paddlewheeler Creole Queen • Adventures in New Orleans Bus Tour • Ghost & Vampire Combo Tour by French Quarter Phantoms • French Quarter Ghosts & Legends Tour by Haunted History Tour • Ultimate Swamp Adventures • Saints and Sinners by French Quarter Phantoms • Cajun Pride Swamp Tour by Boat • Garden District Tour by French Quarter Phantoms • Tremé Tour by French Quarter Phantoms • Cities of the Dead Cemetery History Tour by Haunted History Tour • French Quarter History / Voodoo Tour • Canal Street Cemeteries and Katrina Memorial Tour Museums and Places of Interest • The National WWII Museum • Mardi Gras World (with transportation) • Cooking Demonstration Class/New Orleans School of Cooking • Longue Vue House and Gardens • Edgar Degas House • Southern Food and Beverage Museum • The New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old US Mint • 1850 House / The Louisiana State Museum • Cabildo / The Louisiana State Museum • New Orleans Pharmacy Museum • Presbytère/The Louisiana State Museum Attractions and tours are subject to change. Check your included digital guide for an up-to-date attraction line-up including opening times and instructions on how to access each attraction with your pass before you go.

Follow the guide off the beaten path, away from tourist crowds, on this unique pilgrimage for a trip back to the Antebellum South as you drive upriver along the Mississippi River to visit 2 unique Louisiana Plantations. A Scenic crossing of the Mississippi River on a high suspended bridge, then a short ride upriver brings you to Whitney Plantation: Museum of Slavery. Recently open to the public, it exposes the harsh realities and raw historical facts of this dark side of American history. Get a guided tour of the restored buildings and museum exhibits. The slave narratives and memorial artwork recreate the world of a pre-Civil War sugar plantation and the lives of the slaves there. A short ride through sugar cane fields brings you to St. Joseph Plantation, a Creole style family-owned working sugar cane plantation since 1877. Your tour guide will give you a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the many interesting people who have called this plantation 'home'. Many tours are guided by family members themselves. It is a relaxed, intimate visit to tour an ancestral home, grounds and dependencies (including original slave cabins). It is the location where the movie: "12 Years a Slave" was filmed.   * On Tuesdays, the Whitney Plantation is closed and replaced by the Evergreen or Laura Plantation.

Experience the disappearing world of Creole Louisiana on a 75-minute guided tour of the Laura Plantation main house, gardens and slave quarters. Located on the West bank of the Mississippi in the heart of Plantation Country – the main house dates from 1805 and has been restored to the time when it functioned as both a family home and the office for the sugar plantation. Visit the raised basement and galleries, men's and women's parlors, service rooms and common rooms. Walk through the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead, including 3 gardens: Jardin Français, the kitchen potager & BananaLand grove. Continue the tour on the grounds with 12 buildings on the National Register, including animal barns, overseers' cottages and the 1829 Maison de Reprise. Hear intimate stories about four generations of free and enslaved members of the Creole families who lived here. Gleaned from handwritten memoirs and archival documents from the United States and France, each story told in the 1805 Maison Principale, on the grounds, and in the original 1840s slave cabins is a true, personal account of the women, children and men who spent their lives on this sugar farm. Spend time touring the onsite museum exhibit on your own after your tour ends. When Laura Plantation opened to the public in 1994, it became the first historic attraction in Louisiana to include stories of enslaved Africans as part of the tour. Today the permanent exhibit "From the Big House to the Quarters: Slavery on Laura Plantation" is dedicated to telling the authentic story of the enslaved community of this Créole farm.

Meet your guide in New Orleans, then leave the city behind as you travel back in time to the Oak Alley Plantation, passing by the impressive Lake Pontchartrain. See the plantation's quarter-mile long alley of oak trees, each over 250 years old, and the cypress trees which border the Mississippi River. Explore the plantation with your guide, and listen to stories of its history, which dates back to 1839. Learn about the site’s former uses and residents, and visit the plantation's on-site exhibitions, Slavery at Oak Alley, Blacksmith Shop, and Sugarcane Theater, to find out more about its past.  Afterwards, travel past several of the area’s plantations as you head to the Manchac Swamp. Explore this privately-owned wildlife refuge, and hear about the legend of the Rougarou werewolf. Take a boat ride across the swamp, and get up close to alligators and other wildlife.

After being picked up from your hotel in New Orleans in a 13-seater high-roof van, your enthusiastic historian driver-guide will take you on a scenic narrated drive out of New Orleans, preparing you for a pilgrimage back in time.  After crossing over the Mississippi River on a high bridge, you will arrive at a remote swamp to board a small airboat. With your Cajun boat captain, glide comfortably over marshes and deep into secluded bayous. Discover the swamp’s fascinating fauna and flora, including alligators, turtles, and exotic birds.  Next, you will drive upriver through sugar cane fields to arrive at Laura Plantation. Enjoy a guided tour of this Creole plantation dating back to 1804. Hear the compelling stories of Laura's family saga, as well as stories of the West-African, enslaved people who worked on this sugar plantation. At the end of the tour, visit the museum exhibit dedicated to "Slavery on Laura Plantation" in a restored overseer's cottage. Back on the old River Road, you will pass by Felicity Plantation, where "12 Years A Slave" was filmed, and St Joseph Plantation, where the "Queen Sugar" TV series was filmed. Stop in front of Oak Alley Plantation to admire its parallel rows of centuries-old oak trees. After crossing over the Mississippi River on the Sunshine Bridge, you will arrive at the iconic "Sugar Palace", Houmas House Plantation. Lunch will be served in their elegant dining room, with genuine Cajun cuisine. Then, enjoy a guided tour of the mansion with a guide dressed in Antebellum costume. After the tour, enjoy some free time to stroll around the splendid gardens, before you return to New Orleans. Sample Lunch Menu (subject to seasonal changes) Luncheon includes home-baked bread and butter, iced tea or soft drink, dessert, and coffee.  Choice of Entrees: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad (gluten-free without croutons): Served with tender romaine lettuce, croutons, and parmesan cheese Crown Jewel Hamburger: Grilled 7oz burger topped with cheese, bacon, mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and onion served with French fries Shrimp Po Boy: Shrimp, crispy fried and served on New Orleans French bread with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and Creole mayonnaise Breast of Chicken (gluten-free without grits): Skin-on breast of chicken, served with stone-ground grits, roasted veggies and rum-spiked Houmas House beehive honey glaze Vegetarian Pasta: Veggies and baby heirloom tomatoes with fettuccine pasta and parmesan cheese Choice of Dessert: White Chocolate Bread Pudding Turtle Creole Cream Cheese Cheesecake