tom_mn

I'm interested is seeing a few of these plantations, but frankly I am not a "house tour" guy, and will have 3 children who are likely to be even less agreeable to house tours. I know that house tours are obligatory when visiting the south, but prefer to keep them to a minimum. Also the cost: a family visiting Houmas House would be out $100, and I can't fathom paying that much for even 1 plantation, much less 2 or 3.

So anyway, I was thinking that we may only tour Laura Plantation since it is a more reasonable $51 per family. Then are there other plantations where someone can see the outside and get an idea of their grandeur and culture without taking the time and of course paying for a tour?

spirobulldog

The best two (IMOP) are Oak Alley and Nottoway.

We did enjoy Houmas and Laura, though. Laura was my least favorite.

Strangely, this was a trip for my then 16 year old daughter. She loves the plantation style homes. She didn't really like NO. We even spent the night at Nottoway.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWKQ

spirobulldog

The link was to our photos

qwovadis

myrtlesplantation.com The most spooky by far....

Great also Rosedown and Nottoway my favs...

Head up for lunch walk around no need to take

a house tour if you do not want to...

classic.mapquest.com neworleansonline.com other

good options...

Happy Hunting!

qwovadis

http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/ab...es+filmed+here

Another good one for TV film buffs

Brusley LA Twin Oaks Plantation will be in

the new Twilight Breaking Dawn movie...

bigtyke

I vote for Oak Alley.

P.S. The River Road may go by the river but all you can see are the levees - not the river

Littleman

Drive in your own car and tour only the places you want to. Let your wife take a tour, let your kids take one and don't include the entire family on every tour. Destrehan is the closest Plantation Home to NOLA. Take I 10 W to Exit 220 just W of the NOLA airport and go S on I 310 to Exit 6 just before you reach the river. Turn and go E to the home. They offer tours daily except major holidays.
Destrehan Plantation @ 13034 River Road, Destrehan, LA 985 - 764 - 8785.
http://www.destrehanplantation.org/
Laura, Evergreen and Oak Alley are within 10 miles of each other. You can reach these homes in about an hour. Evergreen and Laura are very good tours that are presented from a historical perspective.
Take I 10 E to Exit 194 and take Highway 641 S to Gramercy Bridge. Cross the river and turn right on Highway 18 and go W to Laura Plantation. The tour information is available at the LP website. Tours are available daily except holidays. To get to Evergreen Plantation take a left when you cross Gramercy Bridge and go E on Highway 18/River Road. Evergreen Plantation is a working plantation with 37 buildings in the National Register of Historial Places. Tours are available daily.
Laura Plantation @ 2247 Highway 18, Vacherie, LA 225 - 265 - 7690.
http://www.lauraplantation.com/
Evergreen Plantation @ 4649 Louisiana 18, Edgard, LA 985 - 497 - 3837.
http://www.evergreenplantation.org/
After you tour Laura Plantation and/or Evergreen go W on Highway 18 to Oak Alley Plantation. You can view the home from the Highway and see the grand oak trees lining the driveway from the river road to the house. Take pictures from the road. There's no use touring OA. It's not very impressive.
Oak Alley Plantation @ 3645 Highway 18, Vacherie, LA 225 - 265 - 2151.
http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/
There's a nice B&B on a small farm near Vacherie, LA if you decide to spend a night in the area.
Cottage on the Farm @ 19637 Hwy. 643, Vacherie, LA 504 - 289 - 0923 or 225 - 265 - 4654.
http://www.cottageonthefarm.com/
You can have lunch at B & C Seafood down the road from Laura.
B & C Seafood Market and Cajun Restaurant @ 2155 Louisiana 18, Vacherie, LA 225 - 265 - 8356.
Or you could have lunch after you leave OA at Grapevine Cafe and Gallery. Drive W on Highway 18 to Donaldsonville, LA and have lunch at Grapevine Cafe.
Grapevine Cafe and Gallery @ 211 Railroad Avenue, Donaldsonville, LA 225 - 473 - 8463.
http://www.grapevinecafeandgallery.com/
After lunch take Highway 1 NW to White Castle to Nottoway Plantation and tour this home. It's a working B&B and has a nice restaurant. It's one of the most beautiful plantation homes IMO. It's about an hour and a half from NOLA.
Nottoway Plantation @ 31025 Louisiana Highway 1, White Castle, LA 225 - 545 - 2992.
http://www.nottoway.com/
Take Highway 1 back SE to Donaldsonville, LA and cross the Highway 70 Bridge. Turn left on Highway 44/River Road and go NW to Houmas House which is another very beautiful home. It's about an hour from NOLA to Houmas. Lunch and dinner is served there if you are interested. They offer tours daily and also offer a tour that will pick you up in the FQ in NOLA at 10:30 AM and returns around 4 PM. You ride in a 32 passenger bus and get to watch a video presentation of Houmas Plantation on your drive to the home. If you want to stay at a plantation Houmas House has one cottage. If it's booked, half a mile down the road is Bocage Plantation and it's a B&B. On the other side of the river, Oak Alley has cottages too.
I would suggest planning your trip to have dinner at Houmas House. It's upscale, fine dining, and reservations are required. But if you end up there at lunch time, the casual lunch is wonderful! Nice menu with lots to choose from. Check out the menus online: www.houmashouse.com
Houmas House Plantation @ 40136 Hwy 942, Darrow, LA 225 - 473 - 9380.
http://www.houmashouse.com/
You could also dine at Cabin Restaurant which is near Houmas House. Bocage Plantation is a nice B&B open for tours near Houmas House.
Cabin Restaurant @ 5405 Highway 44 # Msc 85, Gonzales, LA 225 - 473 - 3007.
http://www.thecabinrestaurant.com/
Bocage Plantation @ 39050 Louisiana 942, Darrow, LA 225 - 588 - 8000.
http://www.bocageplantation.com/
You should be able to drive from the FQ to Houmas House or Nottoway in an hour depending on traffic. You should be able to drive to Evergreen, Laura, and Oak Alley in less than an hour. The roads are good and it's a safe drive.
Driving on the River Road is slow and there is not much to see. You can't see the river because of the levee. Don't depend on your GPS to get from the Laura/Oak Alley area to the Nottoway/Houmas area. Use a road map.

tom_mn

I should have said that this will be a thru trip BR>>NO so not a day trip.

Evergreen looks interesting, but is $80/family. Thanks a lot for the info. I wonder why Laura P. is either most liked or least liked by people. I guess if we tour one, we're looking for a little Tara splendor.

So if one eats at Houmas House, what can you see without paying? Is the $10 for the garden only worth it?

spirobulldog

If you want to wowed by the house, then I vote for Nottoway.
If you want Trees, then Oak Alley and you wouldn't even have to pay for that part. The food is decent but overpriced at all of them,IMOP. Houmas has a small alley of oaks and is nice inside and does have some history and a nice tour. THe tours at all the houses are dependent on the quality of your tour guide. A lot of them expect tips, BTW. Some of the homes are more geared towards history, slavery, etc. The Creole Plantation usually are brightly painted and are considered a little different than say Oak Alley or Nottoway.

I think the kids would be horribly bored with Laura or San Francisco.

You can just drive by a few and get some phots. They are all much more different than you would think.

spirobulldog

http://www.nottoway.com/html/plantat...rs-history.htm

A pretty good deal for lunch for $3 more you get gumbo or red beans and rice. Kids tour of planation and grounds are just $6.

So, for $58 you could tour the plantation and grounds. Then you could have lunch for $15. Not sure if it is a tiny portion or what.

bachslunch

Have been to Laura, Oak Alley, and Nottaway, and I liked all three very much. They're all different experiences as well.

Laura's house is the plainest of the three being typical of a Creole style plantation -- but the tour has a lot of personal family information, plus there are several out-buildings on the grounds. Oak Alley has nice grounds (especially the trees at front) and a very good house -- the tour is done by in-costume guides and is the most polished of these three. Nottaway has the most impressive house and the least polished of the three tours. Neither Oak Alley nor Nottaway have out-buildings to speak of.

Laura and Oak Alley are easy to combine in one trip as they're close by each other.

tom_mn

Oh, thanks for the pictures.

shaz60

Oak Alley has picnic tables. Grab a muffaletta and some drinks in NO and you're good to go.

FWIW, I much preferred Laura over Oak Alley.

BigRuss

Laura Plantation is NOT akin to Nottaway or Oak Alley or most of the others because it was a business first, abode second. Unlike most of the other plantations that were designed as luxury housing for the owners and carried on business interests (agricultural production), Laura Plantation was first and foremost a business and only secondarily a home. Thus, it lacks the (extreme) splendor of most of the others (which is NOT to say it wouldn't be an extremely nice home).

You can easily pop over to Oak Alley and fire off a bunch of pictures of the outside, or do similar snapshots at others on the River Road, but Laura is certainly worth a visit if you're going for a full visit at one location.

Nottoway isn't expensive either, it's about 58 for your party (two adults, three hobbits over 5). It's a bit less interesting than Laura. Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville is really nice and you may not need to stay for the tour. The Myrtles in St. Francisville likes to call itself spooky, but we took the tour and it was a yawner on the creepy ghost front.

As for food, you can slip by Jacob's Andouille on the way out (it's in LaPlace, on the Airport road outside NO proper) for some seriously good stuff. They ship too.

november_moon

We have visited Houma House, Laura, San Francisco, and Oak Alley - listed in order of my preference. If those, if you are looking for Tara splendor though, Oak Alley is the one to choose. I have not been to Nottaway, but from the pictures I have seen, it looks like what you are looking for as well.

We almost didn't visit Houma House because of the cost, but in the end, we are glad that we did - it ended up being our favorite. But then, I really am a house tour person and we weren't dragging a couple bored kids along with us I found the architecture of Houma House very interesting - built in 3 distinct time periods, each time adding on to what the previous builder had done. Plus our guide was fabulous and the house looks like the family stepped out for the afternoon and would return later - great atmosphere.

I liked Laura for the history of the family and the fact that as a Creole plantation, the architecture was very different from the big Tara-style plantations that people usually envision. Plus, they told the story of the slaves too rather than glossing over that part. And the outbuildings are neat to see.

San Francisco plantation was the most laid back - we were the only ones there, so we got to wander around quite a bit. The guide was there to tell us about the place and answer questions, but we got to take as long as we wanted. The house wasn't furnished lavishly or anything, but the archtectural style of the house is really neat. They also have a couple slave cabins behind the main house.

Oak Alley is a big stereotypical plantation house, but from an architecture perspective, I didn't find it all that interesting. The oaks out front were magnificent though. I would return for that. The tour itself was rushed and the guides didn't seem to know a whole lot beyond their script. It was a real get-in-get-out sort of operation. The house is very nicely furnished though.

tom_mn

I appreciate the replies. I'm thinking of rejiggering the itinerary to be leaving Metairie, touring 1 plantation and looking at 2 more from the outside, and then hitting the road for Jackson, MS-- unless people think that that is too much for one day. Trying to get more beach time in and saving some of the history for future trips, so Natchez is being cut.

november_moon

I think that is a reasonable plan for the day.

Littleman

Have a safe trip back to Jackson. If you want great fresh seafood and an outstanding view of Lake Pontchartrain get off I 10 at Exit 209 and go N on Highway 51 one mile to Peavine Road. Take a right and go another mile to Frenier Landing Restaurant. The Crab Trap is also a great place for fresh seafood next door to Frenier Landing. CT is only open Thursday/Friday/Saturday for dinnner.
Frenier Landing Restaurant @ Peavine Road, LaPlace, LA 985 - 224 - 2178.
http://www.frenierlanding.com/
Crab Trap @ 100 Peavine Road, Laplace, LA 985 - 651 - 4150.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/57/14304...b-Trap-Laplace
If you have never been to Middendorf's Restaurant you must stop at Exit 15 off I 55. Go E to Highway 51 and turn right. Go S about a mile to some fine fresh seafood right off the boat. They also serve great salads, gumbo, sandwiches and steaks. Stop to rest even if you don't eat. Get a cold drink and head back.
Middendorf's @ 30160 Highway 51, Akers, LA 985 - 386 - 6666.
http://middendorfsrestaurant.com/
BBQ Station is a good stop in Independence, LA. Get off I 55 at Exit 40 and go E on Highway 40 to Railroad Avenue. Take a right and go two blocks for good BBQ.
Bar B Que Station @ 563 W. Railroad Ave., Independence, LA. 985 - 878 - 3747.
If you take a rest stop near the LA/MS state line at Osyka, MS get off I 55 at Exit 1 and go E on Highway 584 and go to Second Street. Take a right and go to Nyla's for outstanding burgers. The nearby town of Kentwood, LA is the home of Britney Spears who is a frequent visitor at Nyla's.
Nyla's Burger Basket @ 1071 Second Street, Osyka, MS 601 - 542 - 5032.