J_Correa

I am in the beginning stages of planning a trip to New Orleans and Natchitoches next June. We are planning a 10 day trip, spending most of our time in New Orleans with a 3 night side trip to Natchitoches. Our plan in Natchitoches is to see the Cane River NHP, go to the alligator park, and explore Natchitoches itself.

Would it be better to visit Natchitoches midweek or over a weekend?

I am going to start shopping for plane tickets soon and the answer will help me decide what days of the week we should fly in and out.

Also, I was originally thinking of flying in and out of New Orleans. I am wondering is there is a reasonably sized airport closer to Natchitoches than New Orleans? Shreveport? Baton Rouge? We could possibly save some time driving doing an open jaw trip rather than a round trip.

ronkala

Baton Rouge has an airport, but you may get better rates flying into New Orleans. People attending our reunion in Baton Rouge next week found this out, but other than renting a car, there is no ground transportation available between the two cities, so they are flying into BR..

eschule

I venture to Natchitoches quite a bit on business (eat at Mariner's). Shreveport or Alexandria (decent size airports) are both an hour away and are the best options). NO is much further (4.5 hours?). Baton Rouge is still probably 3 hours away.

I-49 is a painful ride with next to nothing on it. 4.5 hours back to NO again is a killer. Just to open your options a bit, if you're going to drive 4-5 hours anyway on the trip back you can get to Natchitoches in about that exact same time from Dallas or Houston (and see something different along the way). Open jaws out of those cities I doubt would be cheaper than NO round trip but since they're major airports anything is possible.

eschule

I don't know where you live but a flight from Shreveport/Alexandria might make you connect in Dallas/Houston anyway.

Just some thoughts.

J_Correa

We are on the SF Bay Area, so just about every flight to that part of the country connects through Dallas - except United which generally connects through Denver.

I will look into all of the airports mentioned when looking for flights. We may be using AA FF miles if we can, so it will be nice to have some extra options in that case.

From a convinience stand point, it seems that Shreveport or Alexandria would be the best options - close enough that we could stay the last night in Natchitoches and just drive to the airport the same day as our flight if we wanted to rather than heading to the airport city the day ahead.

I had never even considered flying out of Dallas - that's why I love this board Neither of us has been to Texas ans since football and hockey season will be over by then, we could actually enter the state without pain - LOL.

Thanks guys. Any opinions about Natchitoches on a weekday or weekend?

J_Correa

Just topping to see if anyone else has any input.

ronkala

Plan Natchitoches for mid week. We were there last Sunday and everything was closed except for some restaurants.
We drove around looking at some of the old houses and walked some of the streets, but that was it. You would probably be ok on a Saturday, but forget Sunday.

J_Correa

Thanks for the input I knew someone would know.

Fairhope

If you are interested in B&B's, Natchitoches has plenty. May I recommend Judge Porter's http://www.judgeporterhouse.com/ We stayed in the carriage house last year and it offered the privacy that the B&B's don't have. Some rooms in the house are near the kitchen. You can walk downtown.
Look at seeing Breaux Bridge and you MUST eat at Cafe des Amis for a cajun experience. Our favorite B&B there is the http://www.countrycharmbandb.org/ . There you can have a house! or rooms. If you can go Sat morning as early as eight they have live music and dancing--It's a breakfast you'll never forget
I'd say go into NO and go out of Shreveport or Dallas or vice versa. One night in Natchitoches is enough!

Fairhope

Clarify --- music is at Cafe des Amis not B&B

Saraho

Natchitoches is a lot of fun- definitely worth more than one night. Be sure to go to the plantations. They are very interesting. One of them has a unique display of art painted on the walls by a 100 year old former slave woman. We had an unforgettable tour given by one of the locals who was also in Steel Magnolias. We liked staying at Judge Porter's house, too. I would stay at least a Friday and Saturday night. We also enjoyed going to the geneology archives at the university. Be sure to walk downtown along the river at night- it's all lighted up.

Dan

The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame is located in the coliseum at Northwestern State University. Free and worth a look. Lots of memorabilia and many famous names. There's also a historic fort called St. Denis just outside the NSU campus. Worth a look.

Lasyone's is a famous restaurant downtown and has the original Natchitoches meat pie. Delicious!

MLMCVM

On your way from Natchitoches to New Orleans, detour through Natchez, MS. (Alexandria to Natchez to Baton Rouge). You will enjoy Natchez!!

Saraho

Or go through St. Francisville just half an hour from Baton Rouge

Fairhope

The poster has said on another thread:

we were planning to take a few days and head up to Natchitoches, but my husband decided that was too long of a drive when there is plenty to see within a couple hours of New Orleans






the posr

J_Correa

Yeah - unfortunately this that is the case. Looks like we will be spending a few days west, southwest of New Orleans instead. Not a bad choice, just not what I was originally thinking. Like I said in my other post - I can't have everything my way

We will save Natchitoches for another trip. We went to New Orleans for our honeymoon and our plan is to go back every 5 years on or about our anniversary. So, there will be more opportunities