53 Best Sights in Side Trips from New Orleans, Louisiana

Between 1854 and 1929, more than 2,000 orphans from New York were transplanted via train to Louisiana. The museum, housed in an old depot building, has more than 200 photos and articles of clothing from the orphans who made the journey.

The Capitol Park Museum showcases the history of Louisiana through two permanent exhibits. "Grounds for Greatness: Louisiana and the Nation" situates Louisiana events in U.S. and world history, from the Louisiana Purchase to World War II. "Experiencing Louisiana: Discovering the Soul of America" takes the visitor on a road trip–like exhibit that courses through the different regions of the state. Rotating exhibits in the museum's gallery explore the arts, culture, and history of the region.

Touring the South's largest existing antebellum mansion will give you an appreciation of the grandeur of the area's plantation homes, but it is lacking in the information it provides about slavery's central role in the construction and maintenance of the estate. Built in 1859, Nottoway's mansion is Italianate in style, with 64 rooms, 22 columns, and 200 windows. The crowning achievement of architect Henry Howard, it was saved from destruction during the Civil War by a Northern officer (a former guest of the owners, Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph). An idiosyncratic, somewhat rambling layout reflects the individual tastes of the original owners and includes a grand ballroom, famed in these parts for its crystal chandeliers and hand-carved columns. As an alternative to the 45-minute guided tour, visitors also can opt for a self-guided and self-paced audio tour. You can stay at Nottaway overnight, and a formal restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. The plantation is 2 miles north of its namesake, the town of White Castle (you'll understand how the town got its name when you see this vast, white mansion, which looks like a castle).

The most famous of all the antebellum homes in Louisiana is a darling of Hollywood, having appeared in major movies and television productions. Built between 1837 and 1839 by Jacques T. Roman, a French Creole sugar planter from New Orleans, Oak Alley is an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture and is now owned and operated by the Oak Alley Foundation. The 28 stately oak trees that line the drive and give the columned plantation its name were planted in the early 1700s by an earlier settler. A guided tour introduces you to the grand interior of the manor, but be aware that you're unable to book specific times for your tour, so you may want to arrive early in the day to avoid lengthy lines. Leave time to explore the expansive grounds and visit an excellent slavery exhibit where regularly scheduled conversations with staff members tell the lives of those owned and kept on the plantation, as well as their lives after emancipation. Other exhibits cover the history of sugarcane in the region, the Civil War, and much more. A number of late-19th-century cottages behind the main house provide simple overnight accommodations, and a restaurant is open daily from 8:30 am to 3 pm.

This Georgian-style house was built for Governor Huey P. Long in 1930, and eight other governors lived here thereafter until 1962. The story goes that Long instructed the architect to design his home to resemble the White House, representing Long's unrealized ambition to live in the real one. Notable features on the guided tour include Long's bedroom and a secret staircase. This historic house museum also serves as the Preserve Louisiana headquarters and functions as a venue for special events.

When this turreted Gothic Victorian castle was constructed between 1847 and 1852, it was declared by some a masterpiece, by others a monstrosity. No one can deny that the restored building is colorful and dramatic. In the entrance hall a stunning cast-iron spiral staircase with gold leafing winds toward a stained-glass atrium. The building is now an education and research facility with audiovisual exhibits including the "assassination room," which covers the legendary Huey Long's final moments and is a major draw. The Ghost of the Castle Exhibit is a 12-minute 4D presentation that tells the history of the building, as narrated by an actress playing Sarah Morgan, whose father sold the land on which the building was built.

This museum traces the history of Opelousas from prehistoric times to the present. There's an exhibit on the town's brief stint as state capital during the Civil War, and a collection of more than 400 dolls; exhibits of artists' works rotate every three months. The museum is also home to the Louisiana Video Library and the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Festival archives.

At the intersection of Interstate 49 and U.S. 190, look for the Opelousas Tourist Information Center, where you can get plenty of information, arrange for tours of historic homes, and see memorabilia pertaining to Jim Bowie, the Alamo hero who spent his early years in Opelousas.

Inside a gleaming glass box, this museum on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette features world-class works, including 150 paintings and collages by Henry Botkin and a Louisiana collection including artists Elemore Morgan Jr., George Rodrigue, and Hunt Slonem.

Part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, this impressive center has well-executed exhibits tracing the history and culture of the Prairie Acadians, whose lore and customs differ from those of the Bayou Acadians south of Lafayette. Food, crafts, music, dancing, cooking demonstrations, language classes, and ranger talks are held on Saturdays.

The highlight of a visit here is the magnificent 20-acre garden filled with semitropical vegetation and the sort of vistas that only a salt dome can offer in south Louisiana. A café looks over Lake Peigneur and provides a restful and picturesque spot for refreshments after exploring the gardens. Be on the lookout for the peacocks—if you're lucky, one of the males will open his feathers for you. Also on the grounds is the Joseph Jefferson Home, a highly idiosyncratic mansion that combines Steamboat Gothic, Moorish, and French-plantation styles. It was built as a country home for stage actor Joseph Jefferson in the mid-19th century and is open for 40-minute tours. There is also a bed-and-breakfast on the grounds.

The contributions of African Americans in Louisiana's rural Mississippi River communities come to light through exhibits that explore the slave trade, African American cuisine, the Underground Railroad, free people of color, Reconstruction, the rural roots of jazz, and more.

The opulent, beautifully restored house at Rosedown dates from 1835. The original owners, Martha and Daniel Turnbull, spent their honeymoon in Europe; Mrs. Turnbull fell in love with the gardens she saw there and had the land at Rosedown laid out even as the house was under construction. She spent the rest of her life lovingly maintaining some 28 acres of exquisite formal gardens. The State of Louisiana owns Rosedown, and the beauty of the restored manor, including the furniture (90% of which is original), can be appreciated on an hour-long tour led by park rangers that—while thorough in some respects—mostly glosses over the lives of the slaves who lived on the property. Be sure to allow ample time for roaming the grounds after the tour.

Run by Louisiana State University, this outdoor teaching and research facility aims to represent the rural life of early Louisianans. Three major areas—the Barn, the Working Plantation, and Folk Architecture—contain more than 32 rustic 19th-century structures spread over 25 acres. A visitor center adjoins the Barn, which holds a collection that includes old farm tools, quilts, 19th-century horse-drawn carriages, items once belonging to slaves, and much more. The plantation section's buildings include a gristmill, a smithy, and several outbuildings. The gardens were created by the late landscape designer Steele Burden.

An intriguing variation on the standard plantation style, with galleries resembling the decks of a ship, the San Francisco Plantation seems to have inspired a new architectural term: "Steamboat Gothic." The house, completed in 1856, was once called "St. Frusquin," a pun on a French slang term, sans fruscins, which means "without a penny in my pocket"—the condition its owner, Valsin Marmillion, found himself in after paying exorbitant construction costs. Valsin's father, Edmond Bozonier Marmillion, had begun the project, and according to lore, his design for the house was inspired by the steamboats he enjoyed watching along the Mississippi. Upon his father's death, Valsin and his German bride, Louise von Seybold, found themselves with a plantation on their hands. Unable to return to Germany, Louise brought German influence to south Louisiana instead. The result was an opulence rarely encountered in these parts: ceilings painted in trompe-l'oeil, hand-painted toilets with primitive flushing systems, and cypress painstakingly rendered as marble and English oak. Tour guides impart the full fascinating story on the 45-minute tour through the main house and attempt to tell the parallel story of the enslaved population forced to labor in the house and throughout the plantation. An authentic one-room schoolhouse and a slave cabin have been installed on the grounds, which you can tour at your leisure.

One of the South's best-known plantation homes was built on the bank of Bayou Teche using slave labor for the wealthy sugar planter David Weeks in 1834. In 1917 his descendant William Weeks Hall conducted one of the first historically conscious restorations of a plantation home, also preserving truckloads of documents that helped explain day-to-day life here for the Weeks family, as well as for many of the people they enslaved. The result is one of the most fascinating tours in Louisiana, taking place hourly, every day except Sundays. Weeks Hall willed the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1958, and each year the trust selects a different historical topic to emphasize. Surrounded by 2½ acres of lush gardens and moss-draped oaks, the two-story rose-hue house has white columns, exterior staircases sheltered in cabinet-like enclosures, and a pitched roof pierced by dormer windows. The furnishings are 85% original to the house.

This arts facility houses the Louisiana State University (LSU) Museum of Art, the LSU Museum Store, the Manship Theatre, Hartley/Vey Studio and Workshop Theatres, LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery, two sculpture gardens, and a rooftop terrace with great views of the Mississippi River. On-site restaurants include Tsunami Sushi, Capital City Grill, PJ's Coffee, and Stroubes Chophouse.

The mother church of the Acadians and one of the country's oldest Catholic churches, this 1840 building was erected on the site of an earlier church. Inside is a replica of the Lourdes grotto and a baptismal font said to have been a gift from Louis XVI. Emmeline Labiche, who may have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Evangeline," is buried in the small cemetery behind the church.

This fine Romanesque Revival building built in 1920 has stunning stained-glass windows.

This building has housed the offices of the governor and the Legislature since 1932. It is a testament to the personal influence of legendary Governor Huey P. Long that funding for such a massive building was approved during the Great Depression, and that the building itself was completed in a mere 14 months. You can tour the first floor, richly decorated with murals and mosaics, and peer into the halls of the Louisiana Legislature. Long's colorful personality—and autocratic ways—eventually caught up with him: he was assassinated in 1935, and the spot where he was shot (near the rear elevators) is marked with a plaque. At 34 stories, this is America's tallest state capitol; an observation deck on the 27th floor affords an expansive view of the Mississippi River, the city, and the industrial outskirts.

Tabasco was invented by Edmund McIlhenny in the mid-1800s, and the factory is still presided over by the McIlhenny family. Tabasco is sold all over the world, but it is aged, distilled, and bottled only here, on Avery Island (these days the peppers themselves are mostly grown in Central and South America). You can take a self-guided factory tour that lasts about an hour and a half and highlights the production process along with conservation efforts on the island. You can also grab a meal at the on-site Tabasco Restaurant 1868, which includes a Bloody Mary bar and a boatload of Cajun classics—all infused with your favorite varieties of Tabasco sauce, of course. The Jungle Gardens and Bird City are adjacent.

This World War II ship has been restored to its V-J Day configuration. A self-guided tour covers more than 50 inner spaces of the ship and the separate Nautical Center museum. Among the museum's exhibits are articles from the United States' 175 Fletcher-class destroyers, a collection of ship models, and a restored P-40 fighter plane hanging from the ceiling. The Louisiana Memorial Plaza lists more than 7,000 Louisiana citizens killed during combat, including the 127 citizens killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An A-7E Corsair plane pays tribute to the veterans of the Vietnam War.

You can pick up information about the town of Abbeville and the entire parish at the Vermillion Parish Tourist Commission. Many buildings in Abbeville's 20-block Main Street district are on the National Register of Historic Places.