Cajun Encounters Tours

We had a fantastic swamp tour with Captain Wade G. on Mon 27 Oct! My daughter (age 9) and I were thrilled with all the wildlife we saw and all the detailed information Wade shared and how he answered every question we could think up about the wildlife and the nature in the area. Even though it was cool and low season, we still saw many many alligators, as well as countless turtles, and tons of water birds, some leaping fish, and a couplev special surprise mammals we never expected but agreed one was the highlight of the tour, as well as some local homes built right on the river. We also really enjoyed seeing the Whiskey Tree and learning about the connection to Disney's The Princess and the Frog. The boat was comfortable and the captain did a great job of turning it so both sides got a clear view of whatever we were currently viewing. Highly highly recommend the tour, and a big thanks to Wade G. for making it even better! We'll definitely be back with my husband and other family next time we're in town.

This was an 2 hour amazing tour! Our tour guide Bishop made it so much fun. He was full of information & he was hilarious. I could have sat on that tour all day. We saw a good amount of gators, birds, pigs & raccoons! The size of the boat was perfect. Everyone was able to sit comfortably & I had no issues seeing anything. It was such a beautiful experience I loved every minute of it!

This was one of our favorites from our vacation to the New Orleans area...and I truly think our tour-guide Dustin was what made it so memorable! A friend who is local recommended this tour, and we went in early October. The day was warm and sunny and we saw a variety of animals - birds, alligators, wild boars, raccoons etc. Dustin also gave us so much information about the things we were seeing and we learned so much about the area and the gorgeous swamp. If you decide to do this tour, I 100% recommended seeing if Dustin could be your tour guide. We could tell he had a respect and appreciation for the swamp and the animals that lived there. He was entertaining and engaging, but not over the top. One thing I really appreciated about Dustin is the respectful way he spoke of the animals. My teenage daughter loves pigs and thought the wild boars were "adorable". Dustin never said one negative thing about them, but I did hear another guide saying "they're nasty creatures" when we were passing by on our way back. That would have really irritated me if he was our guide, so I was extra thankful for Dustin in that moment. All guides should be like him - factual and informative on the info they present, as all animals are an important part of the swamp ecosystem. This was truly a wonderful tour and our entire family loved it and will remember it as one of our favorite parts of our trip to Louisiana!

HIGHLY recommended! We went in the morning and the weather was absolutely perfect! Our tour guide Captain Aaron was the best! We appreciated the fact he was born and raised on the swamp! He had lots of funny stories and was very informative about the wildlife and plants in the swamp. Our bus driver, Cornell was hilarious and very kind - he shared great recommendations for food and things to do in the city! Thank you 😊🐢🐊🪿🦋🌿🐖

This is a very well run company. The swamp tour def surpassed our expectations. Derek the bus driver gave us lots of local information on our way. Ben the boat driver was great, he knew plenty about the flora and fauna and clearly loves the area. He poked around and backed up to allow us to see all sorts of things: many alligators, turtles, raccoons, shore birds, bugs, snails, and plants. Would highly recommend the small uncovered boat. There were no bad seats. Great outing in the swamp!

The Cajun Encounters was pleasantly informative, exciting, and fun. We saw more wildlife that I could ever imagine including, gators, raccoons, snakes, wild pigs, and many interesting birds. Captain Emmett was knowledgeable, funny, and a darn good boat driver! It's definitely best to have a tour guide from the area. I wouldn’t take this tour in the dead of summer but all other times are perfect.

We had the most magnificent experience on our Honey Island Swamp Tour with our guide Tony in Slidell. He was knowledgeable about the area, ecological workings of this wildlife preserve and flora and fauna. He had a great sense of humor and took us to some great spots. We got to see so much wildlife. It was amazing!! The weather was great and the wildlife was out. We would highly recommend this trip if you are in the area. We have seen some fake trips advertised, but this was the real McCoy. Please give Tony a pat on the back for making this such a great tour. It was recommended by my Brother in law who had taken it previously.

Our family had the best time with Cajun Encounters. Our bus driver, Justina, did a fantastic job on the drive from NO to the swamp. She was informative and has the most soothing voice-I could listen to her talk all day! Jacob was our captain for the swamp tour and he also did an amazing job. He had so much information to share about the plants and wildlife, as well as his own experiences hunting and fishing in Louisiana. Overall, we would HIGHLY recommend Cajun Encounters!

Picked up by bus driver, Pebbles- what a guy. Funny guy, really good with people, and seems to truly enjoy his job which is always nice to see. Got to the swamp location and turns out that out of a busload of folks, it was just me & husband who had signed up for the kayak swamp tour, which meant there were enough kayaks available for me to get my own- super exciting for me since I've never kayaked before. Trenton was our guide, we had an amazing time. Trenton provided really good info to our questions, gave us plenty of space to explore, and had some great stories. I had done swamp boats before but enjoyed this quiet way to approach the swamp much better. Trenton found a snake (I hate snakes, but it was pretty cool I must admit). It was too cold for alligators, but that's ok w/me, snake good enough! I would do this again in a heartbeat, especially with someone who has never experienced the beauty of the swamps. It was my husband's first time and he loved it as much as I did, swamps are so striking, something we don't have at home. I highly recommend you try the kayak version of the tour if you're looking to be more interactive with nature, curious, and open to just being closer to the swamp. Totally worth it, something you will NOT forget! Thanks, Trenton and Pebbles!

We had such a pleasant experience with our swamp tour. My friends and I were picked up by their bus around 8:30 am. You have multiple pick-up location options available when you book your reservations. Luckily our pick-up location was a few blocks from our Airbnb. We chose the 9 am tour, with an 8-8:30am pick-up, and it was perfect because it's early in the morning. We were done and dropped off by noon. Captain Neil was great, he held so much knowledge and was very funny. We were able to see alligators, raccoons, and feral hogs! There's a small convenience store that sells snacks, drinks, and souvenirs. This is also where you check in and are given a bracelet. Restrooms are available to the right of the convenience store.

Cajun Encounters was recommended to us by the concierge at our hotel. Based on his description of the City Bus Tour it sounded like a great way to see and know some of the downtown area as newcomers. The driver, Renee, could not have been more pleasant... but didn't seem to know a lot of answers to the questions people were asking. Instead of giving a direct response or saying, "I'm not sure", he tended to talk in circles... often not answering the question being asked. It was nice to have transportation around the area, but it was fast paced and didn't allow for a lot of photos or time to absorb what you were seeing out the window. The only two stops were a cemetery (VERY cool, but only had 15 minutes and were swiftly called back to the bus after 12 minutes), the second stop was a distillery-- when told about it it seemed like there would be an opportunity for sampling/free tasting. Not the case, no tasting offered. Even though there were some enjoyable parts of the city tour, I wouldn't do it again and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

We make sure to book a Cajun Encounters tour every time we visit New Orleans! The tour guides are all super friendly and knowledgeable. This company is respectful of the wildlife surrounding it, and feeds the alligators nutritious protein balls, as opposed to some companies that use marshmallows and other human foods. I would recommend booking a tour in the fall (around October), as that's when we saw the larger alligators and wild boars.

We booked a 8am swamp tour with Cajun Encounters. The pick-up was super easy and centrally located in the French Quarter. Justina was a great bus driver. Our tour guide, Ben, was awesome as well. He knew so much about the wild life, especially about birds and the different gators in the swamp. He made sure to answer any questions and showed us some cool spots in the swamp where other boats weren't at. Ben made sure we got all the photos and videos we needed. Make sure you tip these guys after the tour!!

WOW! Amazing tour and the best part of my New Orleans trip. We got a small VIP boat that got up to 12 people that included pick up. We were a group of 6. Pick up location was easy to find. We got picked up by a huge bus and the driver was Dwayne or Duane (sp?). Nicknames: The rock, Pebbles, Dwayne the sock Johnson. Let me tell you, he made the 45 min bus ride fun and interesting! We learned so much about Louisiana. He was funny and had a lot of great facts about Louisiana and the things from here. On the way back, when he didn't need to talk to us, he still did and we learned even more stuff! Great bus ride, all thanks to Dwayne. Arriving at Cajun Encounters, they have bathrooms. I even saw a little lizard while going pee. There is a small gift shop where you can buy souvenirs, snacks and drinks. You go to the counter to check in and are given a colored band. Then you go out back - there is a walkway where you can see some swampy area and the whisky tree. They also have a ring toss game that our group made us of while waiting. Our boat consisted of 8 people total. The VIP tour boat is a smaller boat. However, it does not have a cover. The bigger boats have a cover. So if you are doing VIP, bring sunscreen! One of our friends got sunburnt. Capt. Billy led our tour. He gave us valuable information on the swamp, zoomed us around in his boat! That was fun, the breeze feels great. They also gave us cold waters. We saw alligators - they came up close! We saw wild pigs (they are so cute). We also saw sweet sweet raccoons. When you get to the end of the tour you go through a swampy area that is surrounded by trees. I loved this. It was really cool to see some of the devestating effects the hurricane left there too. Uprooted trees and whatnot. Overall, this is definitely my favorite thing that I did during my trip to LA! I highly, highly recommend this company!

The drive up was great. Derek really told us everything about New Orleans along the way. We even went to his favorite restaurant recommendation & it was delicious. When we got there the gift shop was nice and the tour was great. Zander was funny and knowledgeable. Would go again. Looking forward to their other tours.

Great experience for the swamp tour. Got picked up early in the morning and took a 45 minute ride to the site. We had captain Neil for our tour and he was great. Super funny and knowledgeable about the area. Definitely recommend booking your swamp tour with this company!

I had such a good time here. The tour was of great value and getting there was easy as we were picked up by their shuttle. Zander was an amazing guide and had a great sense of humor. He gave us a multitude of fun facts about the wildlife and history of the area. These boats have some speed on them too! I'd definitely recommend this to anyone visiting. A1 experience, would definitely go again.

I have to say - I was incredibly skeptical about a "swamp tour" but I was wrong. It was probably one of the highlights of my trip! I opted for the bus pick up and drop off and the swamp tour. Everything went pretty smooth. We got lucky with Captain Emmett and he made the tour a ton of fun. You're not just gonna see alligators- there's tons of snakes and friendly raccoons too. Our guide was really knowledgeable and we picked his brain for sure. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. I'd definitely do it again. Don't forget to visit the gift shop! They've got some great stickers and magnets.

Gayle, David, and I recently experienced the Swamp (including Hungry Alligators) via this most excellent tour. And in a NOLA trip of many highlights, this was one of the best. Bus pickup was at a local Hotel and the trip out to the Swamp was maybe an hour each way. Our bus driver (and land guide) was Renee who was both funny and very informative, particularly about what to expect and with a healthy dose of Hurricane Katrina history. After arriving at the Cajun Encounters staging area, we took our preventive comfort breaks, bought some snacks and water, and maybe purchased a magnetic Zydeco Gator to take home as a souvenir. There was a nice shaded sitting area and good organization to get us on our boats. Our Swamp guide was Emmett, who was superb. He had that right combination of being informative, funny, and self depreciating. We learned a lot about the Swamp, Gators, Snakes, house boats, property ownership, and anything else someone might ask. We were all very happy as we piled back on the bus and headed home. Do you ever get a weird song stuck in your head during some experience? As I was on that boat and the bus going home, I had the following lyrics of Swamp Witch by Jim Stafford running through my mind: Never found Hattie and they never found the shack Never made the trip back in There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump Said don't come lookin' again. Just a reminder that as beautiful as the Swamp is, the Black Bayou can still a dangerous place. That's why there are folks like Cajun Encounters to maintain our safety.

TBH, I was skeptical about all the great reviews. However, they really made it work for my friends and I! Originally, our tour was on a Friday. However, one of my friends ended up with food poisoning. I think it was the raw oysters from the night before. So, we called and messaged in the morning, requesting a date change to Sunday. Without any issues, they gladly moved us over to Sunday. Come Sunday, we arrived at the meet-up point and were greeted by Larry, aka Bam Bam, our driver. He was entertaining us with the history and stories during the 40-minute drive. As we approached Honey Swamp Island, Larry directed us to the entrance and restroom. We all stood in a line to get checked-in and were given a blue silicon wristband. Then we waited in the waiting area. On a whiteboard, it showed who our Captain would be. For us blue, we got Captain Randy! He was entertaining, fun, and very knowledgeable. Although it's not alligator season, we were able to see a couple of alligators, some turtles, and some raccoons. When we got back, we were able to hold a baby alligator, which made my day! Overall, it was a great experience and I would recommend it!

We did the ghost bus tour. This was a good tour as this is our third visit to Nola and we've done a ghost tour everytime so this bus tour was different than the other ones we've done. I did read the reviews first and most said it was cheesy Honestly I felt like the driver was more cheesy than the videos on the bus. It was nice to drive around the town instead of walking around the French quarter for the millionth time. I also liked the cafe du monde city park stop because my parents really wanted beignets but the French quarter location was kind of a shit show when we tried to go on our last 2 visits. If you're looking for something different to do and have already done other ghost tours in the city I recommend reading the reviews and taking this one if it sounds interesting to you.

Derek! The best bus driver and tour guide before the tour! Ben, the best tour guide - thank you both for an awesome experience!

I took three tours with this company and enjoyed all of them. 1. The Ghost Bus Tour: it is a good tour, though a bit cheesy. It's all done via video that's GPS operated. The videos are good, and you get some nice views of the city at night. You get to stop at a cemetery and one house that was a filming site. 2. The city Cemetary Tour: Our guide's name was Butch. He gave a really informative and fun tour. You get to tour one cemetery on foot and also stop at the City Park location of Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. You get a good overview of the city and its neighborhoods. 3. Swamp tour: I took the smaller boat tour for adults only. Our Captain was Captain Jessup. He was amusing, friendly, knowledgeable, and a good boat captain. We saw lots of wildlife. The most frequent animals we saw were raccoons and limpkins (birds). We also saw several alligators, some great blue herons, and some egrets. It was really fun! I'd recommend this tour company. They were helpful and friendly with booking, and all their tours were good quality.

We did the Ghost Bus Tour: This was a solid tour and worth it for the one time. It was a unique offering where there wasn't a tour guide per se but location based audio as your bus passed through it. The bus driver prepped the tour for any stops made and had a story or two at the end of the tour. I had a great time and the production value was cheesy and campy (but in a good way). I was really happy with how it all turned out in the end! There was a stop in City Park which allowed you to pick up late night beignets and coffee to keep warm on a winter night. Solid tour! A great job by the staff and crew.

We went on both the double plantation tour and then the next day the swamp tour. Everything was perfect. The transportation was comfortable, friendly and arrived on time (tho we liked the bus with the bathroom available way more than the one without!) the organization seemed on point despite all they were trying to manage. Our Laura plantation guide Joseph was excellent! And Jerry, who gave us the swamp tour was really great too-- and funny. We highly recommend their programs.

Our tour was amazing. Dustin was so knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. He made the tour even more exciting. We saw alligators, turtles and a host of raccoons. We enjoyed the 2 hours.

Incredible experience! Highly recommend captain aly- super personable, funny, and a local experience! We saw raccoons, gators, and overall such a cool unique away-from-the-city thing to do if you're visiting!

Did the evening tour and saw a ton of gators or various sizes plus other animals. Great staff. Forgot our guide's name but he was the best!! Make sure it's the right season to see gators if that's important to you otherwise you'll enjoy this tour anytime regardless. Beware of mosquitoes at dusk

Mr B, our bus driver was great! We were picked up right on time. He was entertaining and informative of area while we drove to the destination. It rained the day of our tour. Our boat had a roof, sat about 20 people. Keep this in mind because more expensive tours are smaller in number, but do not have a roof.. Our boat captain was Captain Everett. He was friendly, fun, and explained everything in detail. Would HIGHLY recommend Editing to add photos**

Was pretty disappointed that Captain Steve spent 95% of the tour only focusing on the RIGHT side of the boat, not pointing out anything on the left side. At about 20 minutes in, it became quite apparent that Captain Steve was constantly standing only to the right side of the boat, only looking for animals on the right side and completely ignoring the left side of the boat. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he would make sure the left side got some action too, but sadly this was not the case! Would have appreciated if he would've at least maneuvered the boat around so both sides could clearly see and take photos of the wildlife. The people on the left side were craning our necks the entire tour. And when we finally saw some animals, because there was literally an entire row of people in front of us, it was SUPER difficult to take clean photos of the wildlife without getting the left-side passengers in the photos. THE ONLY EXCEPTION was the Raccoon feedings. This was the ONLY part of the tour where BOTH sides got to see the animals from our respective sides! I have a hard time recommending this tour based on our experience yesterday. I mean, how do you go on a swamp tour and come back not being able to grab ONE SINGLE CLEAN PHOTO of an alligator?? Yes, we saw some, BUT ONLY THE RIGHT SIDE GOT THE CLEAN SIGHT LINES, so only the right side of the boat got those! I was super sad and disappointed. It really killed the vibe for me. It was as if Captain Steve completely forgot that 50% of the passengers also paid the same fare as the others. When only HALF of the passengers get what they paid for, I call that a scam. Sadly, based on my experience, I cannot recommend this tour to others. Our bus driver Michelle on the other hand, was the sweetest, funnest bus driver ever! She was literally the best part of our tour!

This city tour was by far the most informative and entertaining tour I've ever taken during a vacation! New Orleans has so much rich history and our tour guy Steve didn't miss a beat with all the facts and laughs provided! If you're looking for a good tour this is a 10/10 recommendation! Thank you Steve for making our visit one to remember

LITERALLY THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE! We had looked at multiple tour companies and this one had great prices and it absolutely didn't disappoint! Aily was our tour guide and he was so amazing! Michelle was our bus driver and she was so sweet! We did the bayou swamp tour and it was so magical. Highly, HIGHLY recommend!

We did the City and Cemetery tour. The entire tour was great, bus was clean and comfortable and the guide (Steve) was knowledgeable and entertaining. Would definitely recommend!

It's super worth it to spend a little more and pay for the Day Swamp Tour with round trip pick up. Because if we did Lyft, geez it'd be sooooo expensive! So definitely worth the extra fee for round trip pick up and you can choose the closest pick up location to your hotel accommodations in Downtown NOLA. The coach bus was comfortable with a standard level of air-conditioning and our driver, D, was very cool and helped make the bus trip a lot more fun with her funny, interesting commentary.

BUTCH!!! What can we say about Butch? Just a wonderful City and Cemetery tour guide. Great personality, funny, well spoken, and a lot of fun as a guide. Great sense of humor and more than willing to answer questions. Seemed to know his stuff and passed all sorts of history along to us. There were only 12 people on out tour so I am sure it made it a little easier on him. My wife and I got to spend a little time on the bus with him before we picked up everyone else and we had some nice conversation. I would not hesitate to ask for Butch if we were going to do this again. This is definitely a go do in my book.

An easy 30 minute drive from NOLA. We had a great time and Captain Jason was very knowledgeable and had some really cool information. We saw a bunch of gators along with other wildlife. Stop thinking about it and just do it!! Totally worth it!!

Absolutely my favorite thing to do in New Orleans. Our boat captain Steve was amazing, knowledgeable, attentive, and really made sure everyone was enjoying themselves. It was winter when I went so a lot of the gators weren't out but that's okay cause I still saw a good amount of other animals like birds, raccoons, and even a nutria. I learnt a lot from the trip and would totally come back during the summer for another look of the swamp.

Great experience. Definitely would recommend. It is well organized and the captain of our boat was friendly. The only recommendation is that I wish the captain had a mic so that those of us on the other end of the boat could hear. It is a great value considering some other companies were charging 2-3x more.

It was an eye-opening tour, unlike anything I've seen before. Although we only got to see a small gator in this season, we were greeted by many raccoons. The tour lasted for about two hours and completely free of any bugs like mosquitoes. Special shout out to our tour guide Captain Emmett for being so knowledgeable and informative about this land, answering every single question with a delightful sense of humor, along with some epic stories and anecdotes. Thanks for bringing a wonderful conclusion to my first trip to New Orleans!

Dang we had a great time. Took the shuttle from Rampart and it was great to not have to drive. Everything was easy and safe and entertaining. Probably saw 20 gators in late May. I'd go back in a minute.

We had an amazing tour with Capt Chris. You could tell he knew his information well & made it entertaining. He answered all our questions & knew the great spots to see many alligators! If you're in any doubt, DONT BE! Book the tour, my 2 daughters also enjoyed immensely.

This was more fun than expected, especially since our guide had a great sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge not only of gators, but of the regional ecology and history. We saw gators and raccoons, mostly. But the tour of the swamp itself was interesting. I'd do this again.

We took the city and cemetery bus tour and our driver Brian was awesome and very informational! Family friendly, highly recommend Brian!

Amazing experience with Captain John! He was amazingly knowledgeable, answered all our questions, and provided a really fun and engaging tour.

I absolutely LOVE Cajun Encounters!! This is my 3rd time taking a swamp tour with them & I loved it just as much as the first two times! Captain Todd was FABULOUS!! He was friendly, funny & he gave such fantastic history.... he knows his stuff!! If you're thinking... should I??? The answer is YES!!! JUST DO IT, you'll be so happy you did!!!

The Cajun Encounters experience was unforgettable aboard a comfortable pontoon, where we spotted over 50 gators. Our knowledgeable guide made the journey engaging and informative throughout the two-hour tour. Cruising through the swamp at full throttle provided a refreshing breeze akin to makeshift air conditioning, adding to the adventure.

Nice experience. You see a lot of alligators. Super nice your guide. I was hoping to go fast in an airboat. Other than that, nice tour.

A great experience my siblings and I had. We got picked up from one of their many pick up locations and our bus tour driver was Dee. She was very knowledgeable about the history of NoLa. She was also kind and funny! She even gave plenty of food recommendations after our swamp tour. When we got to Cajun Encounters, we checked in, looked around the shop for a bit and used the restrooms before our tour. Our tour guide, Captian Wil was cool. I liked the fact that he turned the boat around so everyone could see and take pictures of the raccoons, turtles, baby alligators, snake and other things we saw. He asked questions when people asked and he was very informative about the swamp.

Cajun Encounters provided a great swamp tour experience. I booked through a third party site with our trip, and received a call about 3 weeks before our arrival. They wanted to check if we needed a ride to their location, and actually have a bus that can pick you up around the French Quarter area (if I remember correctly, there's at least 3 pick-up locations), and the person I spoke with was kind enough to ask where I was staying and locate the nearest bus pick-up to our hotel. Our bus driver, Duane, was great and told us about some stuff on our way to the Swamp, which was about a 35-40 minute drive. Our swamp guide, Desi, was great and super knowledgeable about all the animals we encountered and even the plants/trees on our route. We came during the off-season so didn't really get to see any alligators, but they have a baby one in the gift shop. Desi also mentioned a lot of the wild boars were probably skittish because they've been hunted a lot more recently. We did see plenty of river racoons and different birds. There were areas when the boat was turned off it was really tranquil and beautiful. I didn't realize the boat could reach the speeds it does, but that just made for an exciting ride at the beginning and end! Cute little gift shop has some unique trinkets and toys, and restrooms are fairly clean & located outside. Would definitely recommend for families and first-timers to NOLA to experience a swamp tour!

This swamp tour is worthwhile if you are anywhere near Slidell, LA. These folks are friendly and helpful from the time you check in and throughout the swamp tour the staff treats you with respect and values your patronage. Embarkation on to the boat was organized, traveling through the swamp was fun, and the gift shop was full of values (not the typical tourist shop filled with over-priced merch. Everything was fairly priced). Captain Neil was interesting, informative, and humorous. His delightfully entertaining commentary was worth the price of admission. He navigated the waters with caution always ensuring we felt safe. His love for the swamp and its various creatures came through in his commentary which truly enhanced our understanding of this beautiful and complex biome.

An amazing experience. Our tour guide was a gem. He made sure we saw plenty of gators, gave us a lot of facts and info about the bayou, and was such a nice guy. Honestly a highlight of our NOLA trip. Can't wait to come back in the summer!

Total fail I forgot all the employees names from today. But the man who was driving bus 1 for swamp tour on 9/16/22 was amazing. Super friendly guy and gave us good information on New Orleans on the drive to the swamp tour. Our guide for the swamp tour was a older gentleman and he was funny. Gave us good information on the swamp and the things living in it. Was so happy with our day!

From the DMV area to the Big Easy to enjoy the hubby's birthday. We enjoyed Captain Randy's Swamp tour. We had the pleasure of seeing lots of wildlife, along with various tree and plant species. We did all this in a flat bottom uncovered boat (small boat Vip tour). Speeding through the water was exhilarating, and slowing down to enjoy the wildlife was serene and relaxing. It was a little cold on the water, so if you are going in March/April, remember to bring a jacket and if you wear hats & hair pieces make sure they are secure, otherwise they might blow away. A good time was had by all.

CITY BUS TOUR- This company has several different tours. Not really sure if this is correct but my receipt says it is Cajun Encounters but when I called about a discount they said I booked through the BigEasy tours or Paddlewheel.... anyway. Explanation below for discount. I have to say I was very pleased with the tour. I really learned a lot about the city. Our bus driver was Karen and she was very good about checking on how the temperature of the AC was for everyone. She asked several times. She gave lots of history and was very helpful when it came to getting my aunt, who uses a walker, on and off the bus. We were told to be at the bus stop by 11:15. We got there at 11 to be on the safe side. The bus did not get to our stop until almost noon. We were starting to think we had it wrong. Another couple also waiting took up a good ten minutes with poor Karen trying to find who they were. They were there to early. I have to give a shout out to Mike at 422 Canal St. While we were waiting to be picked up we sat inside a building of a different tour company, Adventures in New Orleans City Tour. Mike was super nice and said he didn't want anyone sitting outside in that heat. He books for this tour company also so I would check him to get your tickets. Make sure you ask about discounts. Be aware that there are brochures out there that state one thing and the website states another. One thing I noticed was the schedules were a little different. I was looking forward to stopping at the Cafe DuMonde but we ended up at a distillery. Cajun does go to the Cafe DM but only on the morning tour. This is why I called for a discount. Didn't get one but I do understand that it is hard for them to go and pick up all the old brochures and put out new ones when the website has the up-to-date information. The bus was really comfortable. A hint for those taking pictures. I sat on the drivers side of the bus. After the graveyard the best pictures would be on the other side of the bus until you go to the Garden District. In the GD you go in and out the same way so it doesn't matter what side you sit on. If on the drivers side you will get the best pictures as you leave the GD. I missed getting a shot of the bead tree. Very colorful. The cost of my ticket with a senior discount was $54.75 plus tax but well worth it. Don't forget to tip the bus driver. August 22, 2022

This was the HIGHLIGHT of my New Orleans trip! Seeing an alligator in the wild has always been on my bucket list! This was SO worth the money! They pick you up on a nice bus & have multiple locations available for pickup, located all throughout town. Our driver was Steve & he didn't just drive us out there, he gave us all sorts of interesting facts & history about this incredible city! He made the 30 min trek fly by. Once you're out there to checkin process is easy, there's also clean bathrooms which isn't always easy to come by! Our guide was incredible, I cannot for the life of me remember his name but I'll post a pic with him because he deserves all the credit! He made sure to take us anywhere & everywhere in hopes to see the most wildlife & we did! I couldn't recommend this experience with them more! Make sure to take some cash (the ATM there wasn't working) so you can tip your driver & guide! If Steve or our guide see this please reach out & let me know how I can connect & get y'all's venmo to tip you properly!

Would definitely recommend this tour! Very educational and the kids loved it! Our youngest got to hold a baby alligator. We were running late for our first tour, they were very gracious to let us push it back to the next time. Gift shop was awesome too.

The fun started with Dwayane, our charming and funny bus driver. He had history lessons and anecdotes that kept us super engaged and interested during the drive out to Honey Island swamp. Once we arrived, we met Captain Steve, whose knowledge of the area and wildlife was truly stunning. He obviously cares about the land and the animals, as evidenced by his sweet relationship with an adorably and snack-happy gaze of raccoons! I was super impressed that CE uses eco-friendly foods to feed the animals and are conscious of the best interest of the wildlife. Holding a baby alligator was a highlight and I came away with all my digits intact! Thank you Dwayane and Steve for a great day!