I'm planning a one week vacation for early October and am considering spending 3 nights in Lafayette and 4 nights in New Orleans. Using Lafayette as my home base, what day trips would you recommend to explore "cajun country", in particular the coast, scenic roads, wilderness/parks and, of course, good restaurants to stop for food.

I am also planning to drive through "cajun country" and would appreciate suggestions for sites to see.

You can't beat the River Road for scenery and history. This is the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans south of I-10 - the roads on either side of the river. There are (at least) 6 or 8 plantations along this road that are worth visiting. I highly recommend Oak Alley and the Laura Plantation (great tour) - they are in Vacherie and about a mile from each other. I have also visited Nottoway and Houmas House and they were both beautiful. Lafitte's Landing in Donaldsonville is a very famous restaurant. Prejean's Restaurant in Lafayette is delicious and fun - live music and great food. You might also want to do a swamp tour.

If you like "food" stuff, go to Tobasco Factory tour on Avery Island and also to Tony Chachere in Opalusa (sp), We went to tour of Oak Alley - I would recommend it and we stayed at Tezcuco Plantation - I enjoyed the house tour there but did not like the accomodations - very basic and right next to big industrial area as well as hearing bridge noise all night.

Also - eat at the Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette - food with a Cajun twist - My friend had pasta with tasso - very good and I had crawfish enchilada. Nice atmosphere too