Louisiana Plantation Country – a Trip Along River Road
In today’s episode, we visit Louisiana plantation country. We’ll travel along the stretch of river road from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Along the way, we’ll visit twelve plantations.
On today’s show, you’ll get…
- An overview of each plantation, and an idea of what to expect.
- Pointers for how you might approach the trip, depending on the amount of time you have to explore and what you hope to get out of your visit along the Mississippi River.
- All the ins and outs of where to go, what to see, and how to get there.
Time Stamps
Twelve Plantations
Group 1 – 30 minutes from New Orleans
Destrehan – close to New Orleans…holds a document signed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison…tour guides are in costume….Interview with a Vampire and 12 Years a Slave filmed there…a bit more crowded than Ormond…craft demonstrations…10 miles from the airport…
Whitney – focused on the lives of the slaves…most of the tour is outdoors…sugar cane production…garden dedicated to children…exhibit on the slave revolt of 1811…slave revolt 1811…scenes from Django Unchained filmed here…
Oak Alley – very famous…very popular…excellent house tour…slavery exhibit is very good, but is self-guided and not a part of the main house tour…Antione and the soft-shelled pecan…tour guides in costume…guest cottages are available…lunch was excellent…
Bus Tours and Group Excursions to Plantation Country
Here is a partial list of vendors who offer tours of Louisiana Plantation Country. I have not used any of these and cannot vouch for the quality of the tours.
Additional Resources Mentioned in This Episode
While doing research for this episode, I came across an excellent post on a website called Independent Travel Cats. While I have no connection to Jessica and Laurence, I enjoyed their extensive post about a trip they made to the same plantations we discussed today.
Thank You
A big thanks to my wife, Marie Bologna, who accompanied me on this trip along river road. Marie battled a cold the entire time, but was a great sport. She also helped me capture lots of images and even recorded audio notes afterwards to help make this episode rich with details.
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Thanks for listening!
Mark
Hi Mark, Thanks for listing our article on the 12 Louisiana plantations we visited in your post, it looks like you used a lot of our material for your podcast and notes. Hope it was helpful and we did indeed visit all 12 plus a couple of others that are not currently open to the public. We have a detailed guide to each plantation and regularly update our info to help readers plan their trips! Hope to get back to Louisiana for another visit soon 😉 Best, Jessica
Hi, Jessica!
We spent three days traveling up and down river road, and had numerous conversations with tourism officials and plantation staff. At some point I did a Google search and found your terrific article. I have all the information from the plantation sites, but really wanted to drive traffic to your site, since you all have a first-hand experience. I hope to meet you two if you ever swing back through Louisiana!