What do you suggest for seeing/experiencing New Orleans & its locale outside the French Quarter/Garden District? Time: 2 hrs or 1/2 day. Tour or cruise (no car). Solo Senior Traveler. Would a plantation tour, such as Oak Alley, also provide a glimpse of the area surrounding NO & yet provide a significant difference from plantations already visited such as Mt.Vernon, Monticello, Magnolia NC, etc? Or would a cruise to the battlefield go beyond the industrial Miss.?

Only half a day? I'd suggest either the N.O. Museum of Art, the D-Day Museum, or a plantation tour (which might be a lot like the others you've seen).

Depending on the time of the year and the temperature, how about a tour of the Garden District?

For a different type of plantation than the "standard" ones, I would go to Laura Plantation. This is a classic creole plantation house - wide, colorful, and without the grand columns - that is in the process of being restored. We toured it a couple years ago, and it was incredibly interesting. There is a lot of information known about the family who built the plantation, so the tour is more about the history of the place rather than just a grand house with antique furnishings. There was a fire in the house recently, but repairs and restoration efforts are underway and tours continue. I have heard from others that the tour is quite worthwhile, even after the fire.

We went out with a tour company called Spinato Tours and saw Laura and Oak Alley in on an afternoon tour. The guide told us lots of good information on the way out and back as well.

Time of Year = Mid-October. Sorry I forgot to mention that. Wayne, I am aware of both museums & others in NO itself, but would like to have more of an idea of what the state is like than I will get on the drive between the airport & NO. Howard, thanks, I do have Garden District on my priority list although I have decided yet to do a guided walking tour or the streetcar by self approach.

Is the tour drive out to Laura or Oak Alley just super-highway or local roads?

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) is located in CIty Park. The park itself is very nice (scultpure garden, botanical garden, rereational facilities, etc). You can reach it by cable car, and could easily spend 2+ hours there.

I drove from NO to Oak Alley on the most direct route, which is a local road that runs alongside the river, just south of it (though, sadly, you can't see the river from the road). It was through an area of scattered old plantation homes mixed in with poverty stricken towns (homes are literally shacks) and lots of smoke-belching industry. It took >1.5 hours to get there this way, longer than expected, so we had to leave 15 minutes into the tour to get back to the airport!

I would expect that a tour bus would use Rt 10 instead (a freeway). You wouldn't really be missing much.

Since you say you want to see what the state is like, but only have half a day to see it, there really isn't any chance for you to really get a feeling for the state in general.

Failing that, you could do a lot better than a plantation tour if you are seriously interested in one segment of the state that is closest to you. Drive from N.O. south in Cajun country and make a couple of stops in some of the towns. You need a state highway map, which you can buy in many places, then follow (from New Orleans and I-10) take Interstate 310 just west of the N.O. airport, go south on highway 49 to Raceland, then northwest on La highway 1 to Thibodaux and Donaldsonville, then 70 north back to I-10 and return to N.O.

That trip will give you at least a taste for what's in part of the state, which a plantation tour or a swamp tour won't really do.

If that's too big a trip, drive north on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and just drive around in Mandeville along the north side of the lake, then go over to Madisonville and look around. Those are two La towns that are fairly representative of the non-Cajun part of the state. You will find good restaurants in both places and in Covington. Good luck.

When we went on the plantation tour, the route was a combination of highway and local roads. The highway went through some interesting swampy forested areas, then we got off the highway and onto some local roads through the town of Vacherie and stopped along the river to climb up on the levie.

You must go on a swamp tour, but NOT on an airboat(too loud and obnoxious). We went with Pearl River Eco-Tours on a small boat that took us deep into the swamp. It was a blast. Capt. Neil was very knowledgeable and the alligators, nutria, turtles, etc. came very close to the boat. They were also able to pick-up us at our hotel in New Orleans. And, they let us use one of their canoes to paddle around the swamp in for free. We had a great time.