Alex1

Will be spending 5 days in New Orleans next week and I'm looking to do a swamp tour and planation tour in the general area with the wife. Does anyone recommend one over another? Thanks.

Dan

Assuming you want a combo tour, Tours by Isabelle gets pretty good reviews. The plantations visited (Laura, Oak Alley) are among the most interesting. Cypress Swamp Tours also has a combo tour but Destrehan plantation isn't as interesting.

If you take separate tours, I like the Honey Island Swamp Tour and Isabelle's West Bank Plantation Tour.

ltt

we did a full day tour which included the swamp tour, plantation and a BIT of the city. it was very good.

Craig

If you have 5 days, I would highly recommend you do both. If you have access to a car, you can also do the plantations on your own.

JohnNewOrleans

Ditto to Dan and Craig's comments. I normally wouldn't recommend a car in the city but it can be useful if you want to visit more than the 2-3 plantations usually included on packaged tours.

J_Correa

For our next trip to NO we will definitely be renting a car for a couple days to tour the countryside.

For our last trip we considered it. We knew we wanted to see some plantations, but weren't sure if we wanted to take a tour or go by ourselves. We opted for the tour because it was easier - no need to rent a car, get a map, and drive ourselves out to the plantations. It was what we were in the mood for at the time.

LeslieLovesTravel

Hi Alex1, I didn't like the swamp tour I took so I won't recomend it. I really liked the tour I took of Oak Alley though. It was a gorgeous house! The ride was kinda long from New Orleans but we had a big air-conditioned bus, s it was not too bad. The tour company was called Gray Line. I bought the tickets thru my hotel's concierge desk. Respectfully, Leslie

Leona

Don't waste your time with the Swamp Tour - it's too cold there now for the alligators to come out. We were there in December and took a Gray Line combo city/Plantation tour. Morning was the city, including a cemetary (not to be missed); and the afternoon was a tour of Oak Alley, which was gorgeous and well worth the trip. Their ticket office is behind Jax Brewery, right on the Ms River.

jbarnell65

If you have a car then you must go to see the Old River Road Plantations. We went to go see San Francisco, Laura and Oak Alley. If you are interested in a very romantic view of what plantation life was like I would just recommend Oak Alley. However, if you really want a good look at what a Creole plantation was like then please make sure to go to Laura. The grounds were beautiful and if the story intrigues you then when you get back to the city take the Le Monde Creole Tour. It is worth the small fee you pay for it and the tour is so rich in history that you will feel cheated if you don't take it.
I am pretty sure the swamp tour we went on was the Cypress Swamp Tour. Gata Jake was our boat captain. We saw at least 15 gatas and he had a baby one,Elvis, that he passed around the boat and let us hold. Refreshments were for sale on the boat. We had a great time. I hope you do too.

E

We like the Honey Island Swamp Tour. Have done it twice and been impressed both times with the guides. We did it once on a pretty cold day in October, and the gators still came out to bask after about 10am, so it was still worth doing. Plus we saw lots of other wildlife besides gators. It's a matter of taste, obviously, but I would avoid the tours that offer drinks and music on board--that's something, but it's not a swamp tour.

J_Correa

I agree with E about avoiding the tours with music and drinks on board if you are interested in seeing wildlife and learning about the natural surroundings. Also, I would avoid tours that feed the alligators to get them to come out. Some feed them marshmallows which can't be healthy for the alligators. Some others feed them chickens which is closer to their natural food, but it messes up the natural order of things. Alligators should not rely on human beings for their food. In California at Yosemite park we have a huge problem with the bears. The bears are so used to getting their food from humans that not only are they no longer afraid of people, they actually break into people's cars to get the food. The last thing Louisiana needs are alligators rummaging for food in people's yards.

SaraL

I'd recommend Chacahoula Swamp tours in Westwago run by Jerry Dupre and his family. They will pick you up from the FQ if you have no transport. We were on a small boat with about 14 people, the boat would take about 20max. It was very good and Jerry knew where to find the Gatas, snakes, turtles and racoons among others.