Must-see attractions in Louisiana

  • City Park, New Orleans

    City Park

    New Orleans

    Live oaks, Spanish moss and lazy bayous frame this masterpiece of urban planning. Three miles long and 1 mile wide, dotted with gardens, waterways and…

  • Old above-ground graves in Lafayette Cemetery Number 1, Garden District.

    Lafayette Cemetery No 1

    New Orleans

    Of all the cemeteries in New Orleans, Lafayette exudes the strongest sense of subtropical Southern Gothic. The stark contrast of moldering crypts and…

  • Civil War Museum & Ogden Museum of Southern Art

    Ogden Museum of Southern Art

    New Orleans

    The South has one of the most distinctive aesthetic cultures in the US artistic universe, a creative vision indelibly influenced by the region's…

  • "The Sun" sculpture by Ugo Rondinone, located in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans.

    Sydney & Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden

    New Orleans

    The sculpture garden that sits just outside the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park is a wooded quilt of streams, pathways, lovers' benches and, of…

  • Whitney Plantation

    Louisiana

    The Whitney is the first plantation in the state to focus on slavery, and in doing so they've flipped the script on plantation tours. Whereas before the…

  • Entrance to Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University.

    Newcomb Art Museum

    New Orleans

    Part of Tulane University and flanked by beautiful Tiffany stained-glass triptychs, the Newcomb Art Museum is a great spot to soak up some art, with works…

  • Barataria Preserve

    Cajun Country

    This section of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, south of New Orleans near the town of Marrero (and Crown Point), provides the…

  • RW Norton Art Gallery

    Louisiana

    Set amid 40 acres of lovingly manicured gardens, the Norton is a wonderful museum, especially for a mid-sized city like Shreveport. It's airy, spacious…

  • Douglas C-47 Dakota, transport glidertowning aircraft in D-Day markings at the National WWII Museum.

    National WWII Museum

    New Orleans

    One of New Orleans’ most distinctive tourism attractions has nothing to do with food, music, or having a good time. Rather, it is a museum dedicated to the…

  • Giant head statues at Mardi Gras World. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

    Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World

    New Orleans

    Mardi Gras World offers a behind the scenes peek into the weird, wonderful backstage of carnival season float making.

  • Oak Alley Plantation

    Louisiana

    The most impressive aspect of Oak Alley Plantation is its canopy of 28 majestic live oaks lining the entry to the grandiose Greek Revival–style home.

  • Log Bench On Shore Of Bayou St. John, New Orleans.

    Bayou St John

    New Orleans

    Back in the day, this was a true bayou – an overgrown morass of Spanish moss and prowling alligators. Native Americans, fur trappers and smugglers would…

  • NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, JULY 12:  The New Orleans Museum Of Art, July 12, 2012, in New Orleans, La.  Celebrating 100 years, NOMA is now featuring the "Ralston Crawford And Jazz" exhibition.; Shutterstock ID 107506952; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    New Orleans Museum of Art

    New Orleans

    Inside City Park, this elegant museum was opened in 1911 and is well worth a visit for its special exhibitions, gorgeous marble atrium and top-floor…

  • Historic home on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana.

    Esplanade Avenue

    New Orleans

    Esplanade is one of the most beautiful streets in New Orleans, yet barely recognized by visitors as such. Because of the abundance of historical homes,…

  • The entrance to Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

    Audubon Zoo

    New Orleans

    This wonderful zoo contains African, Asian and South American landscapes and fauna, as well as the ultra-cool Louisiana Swamp exhibit, full of alligators,…

  • Audubon Park in New Orleans.

    Audubon Park

    New Orleans

    This lovely spot, riverside of St Charles Ave, is home to Audubon Zoo. A 1.8-mile multi-use paved trail loops around the central golf course, unfurling…

  • Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

    Cajun Country

    LUMCON? Sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, right? Well, there is science here, but it's all fact, and still fascinating. LUMCON is one…

  • Chicot State Park

    Cajun Country

    A wonderful place to access the natural beauty of Cajun country. The excellent arboretum is fun for kids and informative for adults, and deserves enormous…

  • Laura Plantation

    Louisiana

    This ever-evolving and popular plantation tour teases out the distinctions between Creole, Anglo, free and enslaved African Americans via meticulous…

  • Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center

    Cajun Country

    This excellent National Park Service site is a comprehensive introduction to Cajun culture. The on-site museum gives an overview of Acadian history, but…

  • Vermilionville

    Cajun Country

    This tranquil, recreated 19th-century Cajun village wends along the bayou near the airport. Friendly, enthusiastic costumed docents explain Cajun, Creole…

  • Poverty Point World Heritage Site

    Louisiana

    About 50 miles northeast of Monroe on Hwy 557, near the town of Epps, this national monument has a remarkable series of earthworks and mounds along what…

  • House of Dance & Feathers

    New Orleans

    Not many museums are run out of the back of someone's house, but not many curators are like Ronald Lewis, a Ninth Ward native who relishes in showing off…

  • Couturie Forest

    New Orleans

    Outside of New Orleans East, Couturie is the wildest natural space in the city. A series of paths wind through acres of Louisiana hardwood forest and lead…

  • Lake Martin

    Cajun Country

    This lake – a mossy green dollop surrounded by thin trees and cypress trunks – serves as a wonderful, easily accessible introduction to bayou landscapes…

  • Mary Ann Brown Preserve

    Louisiana

    Operated by the Nature Conservancy, the 110-acre Mary Ann Brown Preserve takes in some of the beech woodlands, dark wetlands and low, clay-soil hill…

  • Jungle Gardens

    Cajun Country

    In 1890 Tabasco founder EA McIlhenny started this bird sanctuary on Avery Island. At Jungle Gardens you can drive or walk through 250 acres of moss…

  • Abita Mystery House

    Louisiana

    With its stuffed alligator-dog-monster, psychedelic mural art, paint-by-numbers paintings, River Road dioramas and comb collection, the Mystery House is…

  • Alex Beard Studio

    New Orleans

    The lovely paintings of Alex Beard are somewhere between a fairy-tale and dreams given pigment form. From puzzles to children's books to fine art, his…

  • Statuary in New Orleans' Metairie Cemetery.

    Metairie Cemetery

    New Orleans

    Established in 1872 on a former racetrack (the grounds, you’ll notice, still follow the oval layout), this is the most American of New Orleans’ cities of…

  • NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 28: Artist Charles Gillam works on a wood carving at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Race Course on April 28, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  (Photo by Josh Brasted/WireImage)

    Algiers Folk Art Zone

    New Orleans

    Self taught artist Charles Gillam is a regular at Jazz Fest, where he exhibits woodcarvings and mixed media work that is fairly bursting with New Orleans…

  • Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans

    Contemporary Arts Center

    New Orleans

    From the outside, the CAC is pretty unassuming. But once inside, with the grand modernist entrance, an airy, spacious vault with soaring ceilings and…

  • TB2MD0 New Orleans, Louisiana - A Vietnamese farmers market, held for a few hours early Saturday mornings in a parking lot in the city's Vietnamese community

    Vietnamese Farmers' Market

    New Orleans

    The closest you'll come to witnessing Saigon on a Saturday morning (by the way, lots of local Vietnamese, being southern refugees, still call it 'Saigon')…

  • Insectarium

    New Orleans

    We'll be honest: if you're not a fan of bugs and creepy-crawlies, you may be happier elsewhere, because at this lively museum, you'll do more than stare…

  • Aquarium of the Americas

    New Orleans

    The immense Aquarium of the Americas is loosely regional, with exhibits delving beneath the surface of the Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean…

  • McIlhenny Tabasco Factory

    Cajun Country

    Driving here feels a bit like entering Oz. After stopping and waiting for the gate to lift, you drive onto Avery Island – which isn’t really an island,…

  • Irish Channel

    New Orleans

    The name Irish Channel is a bit of a misnomer. Although this historic neighborhood, which borders the Garden Districts, was settled by poor Irish…

  • Touro Synagogue

    New Orleans

    Despite the fact that Jews were officially banned from New Orleans under the Code Noir (Black Code), which was in effect from 1724 until the Louisiana…

  • Amistad Research Center

    New Orleans

    Part of Tulane University, the Amistad Research Center is one of the nation’s largest repositories of African American history. The Amistad is not a…

  • Old New Orleans Rum Distillery

    New Orleans

    A short drive north of the Marigny is the Old New Orleans Rum distillery. Founded by local artist James Michalopoulos and his artist-musician friends, the…