rachellynn99

We are planning on driving down from around Little Rock, to Lake Charles then go west towards our final vacation destination of Galveston this summer. (will be in Galveston for about 2 weeks).
We wanted the best road trip route through Southern LA, for our family ( 3 kids). We are used to parks and picnics so that will be fine. They are hoping to see an alligator in the road, and maybe even go crabbing or something. We have a few days we were hoping to spend between Lake Charles and Galveston on the Creole Nature Trail.

Any suggestions? Advice? Must see places to visit?

BigRuss

Suggestion: Take the long way.

Go to the river road toward US 61 (to Pine Bluff, then south on US 65 should get you to US 61 - google it, it's a little east of south of LR - or you can take 65 to I-20 east and hit 61).

At the river road, you can go to various plantations (going all the way down to NO, if you want). You can also take the little blighters to jail (Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum, Angola, Louisiana north of St. Francisville - it's a very good field trip, no you don't go to The Farm itself where the interred population is, it's still a max security facility) and the Port Hudson battlefield site, where we saw some 19th century artillery demos.

rachellynn99

Actually Angola sounds like a good stop. The battlefield sounds nice as well. I'll look into both of those. Thanks so much for those suggestions.

We've been to New Orleans and have no desire to go back during this trip.

Thanks, any other much sees?

cd

We enjoyed Avery Island for an afternoon: http://www.tabasco.com/avery-island/...r-information/

rachellynn99

Thank you, anything else we should do? Fun places to stay? We realize it will be super hot there, but would still like to explore as much as possible.

november_moon

If you are in the New Iberia area (Avery Island), consider a swamp tour on Lake Martin. This is a beautiful swampy lake with tons of wildlife (including alligators). We did a boat tour with Butch Guchereaux, which was really great. And on this lake, there are tons of dragon flies which means no skeeters The dragon flies eat them all.

rachellynn99

We are leaving for this soon. We have one night booked in Breaux Bridge and one night booked in Lake Charles. We have a swamp tour booked as well in Breaux Bridge. I have also scoped out what appear to be some pretty some amazing Cajun places to eat. Pretty excited about that....

Saraho

Eunice, LA has wonderful Cajun music at the Liberty Theater on Saturday night and on Saturday morning there is a great local jam session at the music store. Go to D.I.'s restaurant way out in the country for authentic Cajun food, music and and all ages Cajun dancing. Check for Cajun festivals. There is one almost every weekend, Buggy, Frog, Crawfish, etc.

rachellynn99

Great, thanks for the info about Eunice, perhaps we can catch some music there.

WickedGood

Galveston is really bad in terms of seaweed and very unpleasant at this time. I am assuming you have something booked in that area. If not please look into this issue for possible alternatives

jayne1973

bookmarking

rachellynn99

I don't want to go to Galveston. We go on a family vacation with my husband's family every other year and this is where the collective family chose. That is why we want to spend a few days in South LA before we get there ( so hopefully we'll have fun). We also plan on going to Houston and have purchased the city pass which will probably take 3 full days (it's about an hour drive from where we are staying in Galveston). We have identified a nice city park and a few other nice things in Galveston for the kids and honestly I'll be happy if we never set foot in the beach.

november_moon

In Breaux Bridge, check out a restaurant called Cafe des Amis. The food there is really great, and if you are there on Sunday morning (double check the day of the week, but I think it is Sundays) they have live Zydeco music at breakfast I think live music is important for kids' development (in addition to just being fun), but unfortunately so many venues that have live music are bars where the kids can't go - so I love restaurants and festivals with live music where the kids can go and experience it.

WickedGood

As for galveston some pictures i have seen for last saturday at Galveston and Port Aransas show horrible conditions at galeveston area. One thing i would suggest is Kemah boardwalk. Fun for kids and near NASA also.

If i can downlaod a pic of Galveston beach i would but here is a link to some of the pictures from saturday

http://forums.texags.com/main/forum....33&forum_id=54

WickedGood

Fyi Galveston is not usually this bad, but this is the way it looks now

rachellynn99

Thanks to you both!

Cafe des Amis looks fantastic, and yes the live music would be very fun for the kids. I looked up the menu online and it looks so delicious.

Wicked- Yuck. It does look terrible. Also when I started googling things I came across some articles talking about a huge increase in sharks this year too.....

But Houston looks fun, as does the Kemah Boardwalk you suggested.Thank you.

jayne1973

Yes seaweed is exceptionally bad this year, but I would think there is still plenty of fun to be had in Galveston, whether it's Schlitterbaun water park, Moody Gardens, shopping The Strand, playing cheesy miniature golf, or just walking on the seawall.