After a few tours to Louisiana, you learn about lagniappe (LAN-yap), a Cajun-French word meaning “something extra.” It’s common in restaurants — a surprise sample appetizer or a dessert bite — but it’s also in other aspects of the hospitality industry. Louisianans are famous for embodying the spirit of lagniappe, so don’t be too surprised when someone unexpectedly does something nice for your tour in any corner of the Bayou State.
Popular Demand
Jazz in New Orleans
New Orleans is famous for jazz, partly because cultural historians point to Congo Square as the place jazz was born and partly because jazz is so prevalent today. The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in the French Quarter is the place to learn the story of jazz and perhaps hear the Arrowhead Jazz Band, the members of which are park rangers. Traditional jazz’s most famous venue is Preservation Hall, where ensembles pulled from more than 50 musicians perform multiple 45-minute sets almost every night. Popular club venues include Snug Harbor, the Spotted Cat Music Club and the Royal Frenchman Hotel.
Vermilionville
Lafayette is the heart of Cajun country, and adjacent attractions explain how French-speaking colonists whom the British exiled from what now is Atlantic Canada ended up west of New Orleans and became known as Cajuns. One is the National Park Service’s Acadian Cultural Center, and the other is Vermilionville, a representation of a village from 1765 to 1890 with 19 restored and reproduced buildings. Travelers can meet a woodcarver, a spinner, an accordion player, a fiddler and others with stories to tell. Groups should also take advantage of the good eats at Mama’s Kitchen and enjoy special music programs on Saturdays and Cajun dances on Sundays.
Swamp Tours
It’s almost a shame to visit Louisiana and not see an alligator, and that usually means taking a swamp tour. Your clients can glide on a pontoon boat, zip along in an airboat or paddle a canoe or kayak. Beyond alligators, it’s cool to learn about swamp environments and see other animals such as bald eagles, egrets, herons, frogs and maybe a bobcat. Search out Dr. Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours in Slidell, and west of New Orleans, try McGee’s Swamp Tours in Henderson in the Atchafalaya Basin. Both are short rides from New Orleans.
Poverty Point
One of the world’s most significant archaeological sites is tucked away in northeast Louisiana near Monroe. One of only 26 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States, Poverty Point is a complex of large mounds (one is 72 feet high), six semi-elliptical earthen ridges and a large plaza. Construction occurred from roughly 3700–3100 B.C. and involved perhaps 25 generations of hunter-fisher-gatherers at the center of a huge trade network. They — or people with whom they traded — imported tons of rocks and minerals from up to 800 miles away. They abandoned the site about 1100 B.C. for unknown reasons, leaving plenty for your travelers to ponder.
Up and Coming
Landry Vineyards
Landry Vineyards devotes 16 of its 50 hill country acres near West Monroe to Blanc du Bois, Lenoir/Black Spanish and Crimson Cabernet vines that produce 50-70 tons of grapes a year. With these grapes and others imported from California, Landry produces 24 wines. Landry also has a tasting room, cottages and camper sites, plus space for live music events ranging from major concerts to “Lagniappe Saturdays” (free programs with solo entertainers from mid-March through early November).
Soko Music Experience
Music drives the soul of Acadiana, and musicians Yvette Landry and Jourdan Thibodeaux bring that joie de vivre to groups through a program called Soko Music. Their venue, fittingly, is at Cypress Cove Landing at the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin east of Lafayette. They explore and explain the background of genres such as Cajun, creole, juré (an a cappella style) and swamp pop. Landry, who has performed around the world, grew up in nearby Breaux Bridge and is steeped in the folkways of the region.
East Bank Arts and Entertainment District
Bossier City’s compact East Bank Arts and Entertainment District is a place to turn groups loose and let them choose their own amusements, a task made easier because it is Louisiana’s only open-container district outside of New Orleans. Businesses include the Flying Heart Brewing Company and Pub, Bayou Axe Throwing Co., the East Bank Gallery and Frozen Pirogue, where oysters and daiquiris are big hits. This district is within walking distance of Bossier City’s four casino resorts.
Overnight Sensations
Chateau Saint Denis
The 87-room Chateau Saint Denis is ideally situated for exploration of Natchitoches (NACK-a-tish), the French settlement from 1714 that’s the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase. The modern hotel is within walking distance of the downtown waterfront, a 33-block historic district, restaurants serving the town’s famous meat pies and businesses such as Kaffie-Frederick General Mercantile, Louisiana’s oldest general store. A quiet retreat after strolling through town, the hotel’s brick courtyard is reminiscent of the French Quarter and complements Lounge 1714.
Golden Nugget and L’Auberge
Gaming is big in Lake Charles, and two adjacent casino resorts — the Golden Nugget and L’Auberge — hold many opportunities for your groups. A lakeside boardwalk connects the resorts, and their more than 2,000 guest rooms appeal to visitors, whether or not they enjoy casino games. Shops, restaurants, swimming pools and concert venues command time too, as do beautiful golf courses. L’Auberge’s Contraband Bayou Golf Club is Louisiana’s only public Tom Fazio course, and the Golden Nugget offers its 7,000-yard championship Country Club Course.
Southern Hotel
Covington’s 56-room Southern Hotel is a sedate property on the quiet side of Lake Pontchartrain opposite New Orleans. Locals call the region the Louisiana Northshore. The Southern is a central location to explore its diverse small towns, distinct history, Louisiana’s only maritime museum and numerous restaurants. The 31-mile Tammany Trace is great for walkers, joggers and cyclists and delivers panoramic views of Lake Pontchartrain. Art from local creators accents the hotel’s airy public spaces, honoring Covington’s history as an artists’ community.
Memorable Meals
Randol’s
Acadiana mourned in 2021 when two landmark restaurants — Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge and Randol’s in Lafayette — closed. The sad times ended in 2023 when Randol’s reemerged in Breaux Bridge in the building Mulate’s had made famous. Randol’s is a place where visitors can get a true glimpse of Cajun country because it serves fresh Gulf seafood, crawfish, farm-raised alligator and farm-raised Louisiana catfish and adds the special touch of live Cajun music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. From the instant the first notes come out of the fiddle and accordion, the dance floor fills up.
Steamboat Bill’s
Steamboat Bill’s is a Lake Charles institution. It’s big, bustling and popular with local diners. The restaurant has been building a reputation since 1982 when it started as a roadside fresh shrimp business. Seafood is the focus, and Steamboat Bill’s is a one-stop destination to sample the region’s culinary treats. Boiled crawfish packs in patrons from February through mid-June, and boiled shrimp are available all year. The “Cajun Cooking” portion of the menu will have every group talking — crawfish etouffee, shrimp etouffee, shrimp and crab gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, red beans and rice and more. No one leaves hungry.
Orlandeaux’s Cross Lake Café
Great food is only one distinction at Orlandeaux’s Cross Lake Cafe. Another is that the lakeside eatery is one of the oldest Black-owned family restaurants in the nation. Chapeaux Chapman bypassed a career as a mechanical engineer to become the fifth generation to lead this Shreveport treasure, and he will lay some delicious seafood on whoever visits. Check out Creole Shrimp DeLaine, his twist on stuffed shrimp. The recipe calls for fresh Gulf shrimp, Creole crabmeat and fish, sugar-coated bacon and Colby cheese drizzle. Nobody can eat just one.
