The staff at Louisiana’s River Parishes is committed to creating experiences that are exciting and adventurous for groups. Tour goal is to work directly with tour operators and travel planners to provide them with any services that are needed to customize tours for their groups and to help make the planning process as easy as possible. We are here to help with securing hotels and restaurants, arranging transportation and tours, and offering suggestions and ideas for developing unique excursions specifically for groups.  

Day 1 – Sunday: 

Your group’s experience will begin with brunch at Ormond Plantation Restaurant in Destrehan, while enjoying a great meal and sipping on a Bloody Mary or a Bottomless Mimosa. 

After brunch, everybody will head over to Destrehan Plantation to learn the history of the owners and the slaves who lived on the plantation during the French and Spanish colonial periods. There’s an exhibit dedicated to the 1811 Slave Revolt and other displays about life before, during, and after the Civil War. 

The group’s next stop is the Basketry in Luling where everyone will enjoy shopping. The boutique is known for delivering “lasting impressions” and offers exclusive lines of gifts, jewelry and clothing made locally, and custom-made gift baskets. 

Everybody can walk over to Southern Latte Café and have a Créme Brûlée Latte before lunch at the diner. The Chicken Cesar Panini Grilled Wrap is a good choice, as well as the Muffuletta Potato Salad. For dessert, have a Praline Swirl or piece of Rocky Road chocolate cake. 

After lunch, the group will enjoy an exciting airboat tour with Swamp Adventures. Gliding through the swamplands and wetlands, picturesque sights of the marshes and sighting of alligators will fascinate everyone, while the captain points our an explains the flora and fauna. 

Everyone can relax a few hours before tonight’s live performance at the Lafon Performing Arts Center. The theater is a premier, world-class facility that magnifies arts education and elevates the social culture of the communities in the region through visual and performing arts experiences. 

It’s a little late, so boxed dinners have been prepared for everyone by a local caterer. When the group arrives to the hotel, the meals will be in the breakfast room where everyone is welcomed to dine together. 

Day 2 – Monday: 

The group will start the day with breakfast at Chung’s Heavenly Café in LaPlace. A beignet with coffee is a great way to begin the meal, followed with jalapeno Kolache sausage, wrapped in croissant dough or a breakfast croissant served with ham, egg, and cheese. 

After breakfast, everyone will enjoy a “good morning” Blackberry Coconut Sour cocktail at the River Road Distillery in Paulina. Made from Kicking Mule Rum distilled right there at the distillery, the group will see how the rum is made on a guided tour. 

The group’s next tour will be of Laura Plantation: Louisiana’s Creole Heritage Site in Vacherie. Here, everyone will learn the true and authentic history of the Creole culture, beginning with the “From the Big House to the Quarters: Slavery on Laura Plantation” exhibit, followed by a guided tour of the plantation home and the slave quarters. 

Before lunch, everyone will have another cocktail, and this time, it’s a Mint Julep at Oak Alley Plantation. Oak Alley offers flexibility, so before the group sits down to have lunch together, some may want to take a guided tours of the home, some may want to examine the oak trees, and some may want to tour the slavery exhibit.  

After lunch, the group will visit St. Joseph Plantation. Still today, St. Joseph is a working sugarcane plantation and is owned by the family members. Everyone will get an in-depth tour of the family’s ancestral home and the dwellings where the slaves once lived. Several movies are filmed at the plantation, including Oprah Winfrey’s popular series, Queen Sugar.  

The next stop is a visit to the region’s newest attraction, Creole Sugarland. The tour presents the historical connection between bonfires and sugarcane, and everyone will experience hands-on demonstrations involved with the techniques of raising, harvesting, and eating sugarcane. After the tour, the group can relax in the Cabana and enjoy a cup of homemade sugarcane cocoa. 

For dinner,  the group will dine at Nobiles Restaurant and Bar in Lutcher, Begin the meal with the Harvest Salad or the Chicken-Andouille Gumbo, followed with Shrim and Crab Fettuccine or Homemade Stuffed Crab with Smothered Potatoes. End the meal with Nobiles’ signature dessert Baba, a recipe handed down from the slave, Les Babas de Chouquette. 

Day 3 – Tuesday: 

The group will continue the tour beginning with breakfast at Cafe Periqué in Gramercy. Everyone will enjoy a good old-fashioned Creole southern breakfast and a variety of home-made cinnamon rolls, donuts, and other breakfast sweets. 

The next stop is Whitney Plantation in Wallace. The plantation is a historic district devoted strictly to slavery in Louisiana and presents slaves’ experiences through first-person narratives told by the enslaved children. Stories about the harsh lives of salves are portrayed on the Wall of Honor, in the Field of Angels, and throughout the entire plantation. 

A short drive away is Evergreen Plantation in Edgard. The group will see the rows of ancient live oaks before receiving an informative and fascinating guided tour, and everyone will participate in a “call and response” conversation, while walking through the former slave quarters. 

For lunch, the group will dine at Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse and Restaurant in LaPlace. While everyone is enjoying their meal that comes with a couple of pieces of Anoudille sausage, a brief presentation about the Jacob’s family tradition of making Andouille sausage and other smoked meats will be made. After lunch, everyone can take a look at the smokehouses out back.  

After lunch, the group will visit San Francisco Plantation in Garyville. Once owned by a free man of color, the plantation has an interesting history about the relationships between the slaves and the slave owners that is illustrated on murals painted on the ceilings in some of the rooms in the home. 

The group’s next experience will be at Historic Riverlands in Reserve. Here, stories about the lives of African Americans after slavery and during the segregated Jim Crow era are told and illustrated through a variety of exhibits in the sanctuary of Our Lady Grace Church. The tour includes the Soul River Musical Journey,  a trail of music genres created by African Americans. 

Everyone will enjoy connecting with nature on a Cajun Pride Swamp Tour in LaPlace. While cruising on the calm and peaceful waters of a private Louisiana wildlife refuge, the group will relax and enjoy the primitive beauty of moss-draped trees, sighting of alligators, and hidden treasures of the forested wetlands. 

For dinner, everyone will dine and listen to music at Frenier Landing Restaurant and Oyster Bar. Everyone will enjoy a seafood entreé or a steak dinner, while Harold Warren and The Innervision Band takes everyone for an entertaining ride down Motown’s rhythm and blues memory lane. 

Day 4 – Wednesday: 

The final day of the group’s experience will begin with breakfast at the Carriage House Restaurant at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow. After breakfast, everyone can explore the gardens, the unique statues, and take a tour of the mansion. 

We cannot let the group leave without putting a paddle into their own hands at Spuddy’s Cajun Foods in Vacherie. The group will have a choice to make either their own Andouille and Smoked Sausage or their own Jambalaya and Gumbo. While cooking, everyone will enjoy listening to stories and tales about the history of the Louisiana’s River Parishes and listening to foot-tapping Cajun and Zydeco music.