-Day 1 Bonjour New Orleans
Meet your tour director
Dinner
Details: New Orleans guided sightseeing tour
Experience the authentic flavor of New Orleans as you walk amongst the history, architecture and splendor of the famed French Quarter, the bustling Warehouse Arts District, the opulent Garden District, and the historic Lafayette Cemetery. Along the way, you’ll see the former homes of famous local residents and you’ll even have a chance to swing by the always lively Bourbon Street.
Details: Audubon Zoo visit
Get a taste of the Louisiana Swamp – all without getting wet! See authentic bayou wildlife, like the famous white alligator, amid cypress trees and Spanish moss in this imitation swamp. Sample Cajun cuisine, watch an alligator feeding, and learn all about the habitats and wildlife found in Louisiana.
Day 2 New Orleans landmarks
Breakfast
Details: Mardi Gras World visit
Get the skinny on Fat Tuesday with a behind-the-scenes tour of the world’s leading maker of floats, sculpture and props. From the streets, Mardi Gras may look like mayhem, but there’s truly an art and science to these party parades.
Details: French Market visit
The French Market, once a Native American trading post on the shores of the Mississippi River, has become a cultural, commercial and entertainment treasure to New Orleans. Wander through the open-air community flea market, cultural shops and unique boutiques to see arts, crafts and trinkets unique to New Orleans.
Details: Audubon Aquarium of the Americas visit
One of the top five in the country, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas features more than one million gallons of fresh and saltwater exhibits of 530 species in a variety of wondrous habitats.
Details: Riverwalk, the scenic and popular riverside mall
Walk through the premier festival marketplace in New Orleans, watch cruise ships, riverboats and steamers come and go at the New Orleans Port and wander along a half-mile of shops and restaurants offering a taste of the unique Cajun and Creole culture.
Details: Evening Mississippi Riverboat dinner and jazz cruise
Experience what it felt like to live in a time when life was as slow and graceful as the current on the Mississippi. Savor the beauty and romance of the New Orleans skyline aboard the authentic Steamboat NATCHEZ. Enjoy buffet-style dining prepared fresh onboard while the Grammy nominated "Dukes of Dixieland" perform live jazz music.
Day 3 Plantations & bayou country
Breakfast
Dinner
Details: Whitney Plantation Guided Tour
You will have a guided tour of Whitney Plantation, the only plantation museum in Louisiana with an exclusive focus on the lives of enslaved people. You will visit Whitney’s memorials and restored buildings to enter the world of a Louisiana sugar plantation and to remember those who built and worked the property. On your tour, your guide shows you through slave cabins, a freedmen’s church, detached kitchen and outbuildings, a 1790s owner’s house and memorials built to honor the enslaved.
Details: Swamp tour
Embark on a swamp tour featuring a private swamp refuge and narrated boat tours with alligators and other wildlife sightings.
Day 4 Goodbye New Orleans
Breakfast
Travel home
Details: St. Charles Avenue
Lee Circle separates downtown and uptown sections of this grand avenue. Heading upriver, stroll past an impressive showcase of southern mansions where the power players of The Crescent City once lived.
Details: Lafayette Cemetery visit
Why are cemeteries in New Orleans largely above ground? Contrary to myth, it’s not about the water table. Learn the truth as you walk through this “City of the Dead,” a former French plantation turned final resting place for legends of the Civil War and hundreds of victims of the 19th century yellow fever plague.
Day 4 Start Your Community Engagement Extension
Breakfast
Dinner
Details: Service-learning project
Engage in a service-learning project in or around New Orleans. We work hand-in-hand with trusted organizations and charities to coordinate volunteer projects that meet the needs of local communities, so when it’s time for your group to travel, you may participate in a variety of projects around the themes of environmental sustainability, education, arts and culture or food insecurity and homelessness.
Details: Barataria Preserve visit
Originally settled by Canary Islanders in 1779, the Barataria Preserve offers a good introduction to the wetlands environment—just watch out for alligators!
Day 5 Goodbye New Orleans
Breakfast
Travel home
Details: St. Charles Avenue
Lee Circle separates downtown and uptown sections of this grand avenue. Heading upriver, stroll past an impressive showcase of southern mansions where the power players of The Crescent City once lived.
Tour Includes:
- Round-trip transportation
- 3 overnight stays in hotels with private bathrooms
- Breakfast daily (except arrival day)
- Dinner daily (except departure day)
- Full-time services of a professional Tour Director
- Guided sightseeing tours & city walks as per itinerary
- Visit to select attractions as per itinerary
- Overnight security chaperone
- Tour Diary™
- Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.
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