Small-Group Tour of Laura and St. Joseph Plantations from New Orleans

Isabelle was fantastic with communication in advance due to bad weather, and a wealth of knowledge about the area and history. Unfortunately we booked this trip specifically to visit Laura plantation and we found out during our tour that we will be visiting a different plantation (and only one, not two). Tour was cut short to less than 4 hours, although we stopped by in some areas in NOLA. I wish we were given a choice prior to this tour to participate in a shorter version or to cancel, especially since the price of the tour was significantly higher than other tours.

Excellent tour of two very different plantations! Guides are well-versed in the history, portraying the lives of both the “big house” and the “back of the house” in a respectful and illuminating the way of life of this time period!

Madeline was our driver/guide on the bus, and she is fabulous. She knows her history and is spell-binding in how she tells her stories. The tours at each of the plantations were given by staff at each location, and were just okay. We had more time at Oak Valley, so I brought a bagged lunch that I enjoyed under the massive oaks.

We loved the tour to the plantations!! Muriel was a great guide!! Very informative and good natured!! The weather wasn’t cooperating at all!! Was a very foggy and dreary day!! So sad we could not see but a few yards in front of us!!

It was a great tour. It was nice to get to see two very different plantations . The guide at Laura was the best.

The Oak Alley tour of the house is nice but exploring the grounds etc is even better. We would have liked more time here as there was so much to see and do. The Laura plantation was excellent and it was a lovely experience to do these tours with a small group.

Although we had selected Oak Alley and Laura we were offered Wilson and St Joseph's rather than cancel. What great alternatives! Wilson had the history of the slaves (and the memorials), and St Joseph had an excellent tour of the plantation house (some by descendents). Great combination. A tip though, have a large breakfast as neither have a cafe just snacks. Don't let it put you off it was great and the trip there and back really informative too.

Giselle, the driver for our Tours by Isabelle Plantation Tour was an excellent driver/tour guide. She was a lot of fun and provided quite a bit of the history of New Orleans and the plantations. Our 2 plantation tours were both excellent but if you can only do one it should be Laura.

While the visit to the two plantations were both beautiful and informative, it was our tour guide Gisèle that made the day more special. She is very knowledgeable of the culture and history of the area and loves her job. She was great!

The tour was coordinated by Tours by Isabelle. Our driver/guide was John - a very likable Cajun who provided plenty of local flavor and stories, although we did hear some of the same things on the way back to NOLA that we heard on the way to the plantations. We were scheduled to be picked up at 8:30. The day before we got a call that it was moved up to 7:50 because they had to pick up several other parties. It turns out that we were next to last to be picked up and some of the people were picked up as early as 7:30. On the way to the first plantation Laura, John is calling it to find out when it opens. He didn't know. It turns out it was 10:00 so we drove around to kill time before we got there. Isabelle needs to plan this better. The Laura tour was excellent. The tour is well planned with a thorough history of the plantation and plenty of stories about its owners, etc. It included the main house and several out buildings and provided a good picture of life in its heyday. Our guide was very good sorry- I don't remember his name. They have a small museum in the back of the gift shop that was chock full of good information. It is easy to miss, but check it out if you like that kind of thing. The Oak Alley plantation house was more impressive, but the tour was lacking. We were lead through several rooms in the house and then we were free to roam the grounds. Our guide sounded like a recording - as if she had recited this tour a hundred times. The tour was large and she would start her spiel in each room before everyone even had a chance to enter the room. When I asked her to wait for everyone, she was not interested. She said they could ask questions if they need to. I guess they were on a strict time schedule. The grounds were interesting and there was some very good information in the slave quarters that is worth seeing. John was really nice to return us to anywhere in NOLA that we wanted to be dropped off and even gave is a bit of a driving tour of the Jackson Square and Frenchmen Street areas before doing so. If you do this, be aware that lunch is not really planned and you will return to the city after 2:00. There is a little restaurant at Oak Alley where you can get a sandwich and you will likely to want to do that during the time you have to explore the grounds there.