lmavolio

Hi Everyone - Fodors recommended itinerary suggests taking day trip with a tour company which offers a 1/2 day plantation tour + 1/2 day swamp tour. This sounds fun. Has anyone done this before and can you recommend a reputable tour company? Don't want to rent a car or worry about directions so this seems like a logical choice. Also, I read in one of the postings below that there was a fire at Laura Plantation. Is it still worth seeing or should we choose a tour company that visits another plantation. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!! - Laura

J_Correa

We did our plantation tour with Spinato Tours http://www.plantationadventure.com/flash/mainmovie.html
and it was really great. They have combination plantation and swamp tours, although we only did the plantation tour through them.

Our guide was really great, very knowledgable and our group was small enough that we all got to ask as many questions as we wanted to.

I haven't heard about the condition of Laura Plantation - we saw Laura and Oak Alley. There is a tour out to Evergreen Plantation, which I have heard is really good because many of the slave quarter buildings have been restored.

Tours by Isabelle is similar to Spinato and I have heard good things about them too.

pepper131

Look at Evergreen. We sneaked a drive behind their plantation once (it's now gated) and caught a peek of the slaves' quarters. The grounds are beautiful with the live oaks. And eerie around the slaves quarters where the trees are huge and planted between each slave's home. If those trees could talk...

KVR

We are going this weekend and chose Gray Line for a swamp tour. They offer several other types of tours also including the swamp/plantation combo tour. We also booked the Cajun Queen dinner cruise. We got a discounted rate by booking directly with Southwest Airline Vacations as part of our package. Grayline's website is:

http://www.etix.com/travel/servlet/o...ranchise_id=69

Will post a trip report when we return next week.

ccolor

KVR - There are so many great places to eat in New Orleans that you might want to reconsider the steamboat dinner cruise. The rides are fun, but the food leaves a little to be desired. You have fun while you're there!

MzPossum

If you can find a tour company that has a swamp tour of Alligator Bayou near Baton Rouge, take this! Excellent tour

lisbeth

My husband and I took a 1/2 day airboat swamp tour/plantation tour with Tours by Isabelle over Labor Day weekend. We had a fantastic time. They pick you up in a van at your hotel. The tour group is small, only 7 people in ours. Our van driver was very knowledgeable and showed us points of interest along the way. We got to ride on a small airboat (7-8 passenger) which was great because it can get into places the larger airboats can't. The plantation tour was of Destrehan plantation. I would have liked to see Oak Alley, but it wasn't offered with the 1/2 day tour. The tour lasted from 9a-2p I believe. This worked out great for us, because we didn't want to spend a whole day on a tour. Hope this helps.

ktbear7476

Hello! When we went to NO we did th Cajun Pride Swamp Tour. So much fun! You can do a half day Swamp Tour and half day Plantation Tour (San Francisco Plantation). Plus they'll come pick you up at your hotel!


http://www.cajunprideswamptours.com/index2.htm

snowrooster

I agree that a small airboat is the way to go for a swamp tour (I belive we did ours through Airboat Adventures). The smaller group and boat really makes a difference - your guide answers questions, gets you into the inlets, and tells personal stories (ours had experience snatching alligator eggs!). I've heard some worries of fanboats being loud but that is only when you are going a distance, and they give you headphones. Most of the time you are trolling slowly and there isn't any noise.

We toured Oak Alley, which is nice. I would love to return and see Laura (we drove by and peeked through the fence) so I hope they are able to salvage it.

Have a great trip!!

Dan

Since there was a fatal airboat accident a few weeks ago, some companies aren't offering those craft on swamp tours. I've always preferred the slower barge-type boats as the tours are cheaper and the boats are indeed much quieter.

ltt

i don't remember what company we went with but we did a full day tour - bried city tour, swamp tour, lunch and then the plantations. it was very good and worth a full day.