Lafayette KOA

Avery Island - Tabasco Factory and Jungle Gardens

The home of world-famous TABASCO® Sauce, Avery Island lies about 140 miles west of New Orleans. It's one of five salt dome islands rising above the flat Louisiana Gulf coast. Geologists believe these mysterious elevations were created when a saltwater ocean covering what is now Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi evaporated—leaving behind a vast sheet of salt.

Acadian Village

The Acadian Village serves as a monument to the proud culture of the Acadian people. As a folk life museum, it offers an authentic vision of Acadian society in south Louisiana during the 19th century. Period homes of Acadian architecture have been restored to their 19th century appearances and furnished with native Louisiana antiques. A replica of a village store and chapel enhance the atmosphere of a quaint village setting, that is surrounded by ten acres of gardens and woodland. Located at Acadian Village, the Mississippi Valley Museum is open to Village visitors without additional charge. A log building resembling a frontier mission of the Mississippi River region, the museum presents a unique combination of Native American artifacts and scenes illustrating missionary experiences among the tribes of the vast territory drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries.

The Atchafalaya Basin swamp tours by Airboat Tours Inc.

Chretien Point Plantation

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mansion was built in 1831 with 12 rooms by Hypolite Chretien and his lovely wife Felecite Neda Chretien. The main house contains 5 bedrooms, a drawing room, formal dining room, family dining room, kitchen and rear hall containing the fabulous staircase copied for “Tara” in the movie “Gone With The Wind.” The home is built entirely of brick with Tuscan columns and arched lunettes on both doors and windows. The mansion was the center of a thriving 10,000 acre cotton plantation. The War Between the States brought hard times to Chretien Point, for the mansion and surrounding countryside figured in a battle of the Red River Campaign. The upper section of a column was torn off by a Union cannonball and there is still a bullet hole in one of the front doors.

Rip Van Winkle Gardens and Historic Joe Jefferson Plantation Home

Rip Van Winkle Gardens is a semi-tropical garden and nature preserve, with historic homes, in a unique setting. The Gardens cover over 20 secluded, rolling acres adjacent to Lake Peigneur. The stately live oak trees throughout provide a majestic umbrella for the floral tapestry beneath them. Literally thousands of blossoms can be seen any day of the year. The centerpiece of Rip Van Winkle Gardens is the historic Joe Jefferson House. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the house was built in 1870 by the actor Joe Jefferson, who acquired international fame for his portrayal of the legendary Rip Van Winkle. The rooms are filled with various heirlooms and period pieces, giving visitors the feeling that they have stepped back in time to the Victorian age of elegance and grandeur. The Gallery of the Gardens, Acadiana’s very own art museum, is part of Rip Van Winkle Gardens and features exhibitions from national as well as local collections.

Vermilion Ville

A Cajun and Creole living history museum and folklife village. It celebrates the cultures of these people who settled in the southern part of the state more than 200 years ago.

Shadows-On-The-Teche

It has everything a southern plantation house should. Big white pillars, beautiful furnishings, live oaks dripping Spanish moss. But there’s something special here. Something more important. The magic lies in forty old trunks, discovered upstairs in the attic. An amazing collection of 17,000 family letters, photographs, and receipts documenting four generations of one family which provides Shadows-On-The-Teche with one of the best documented tour experiences in the country. A National Trust Historic Site.

KONRIKO company store

Located on the grounds of America’s oldest rice mill. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Start your tour in the KONRIKO Company Store where you will see an historically correct presentation on the Cajun culture, how it began and how it developed. Then we will guide you through our old rice mill where you can watch us package rice and make rice cakes. The mill creaks and groans, but still produces the finest quality rice in America.