Visit the Whitney Plantation of New Orleans and step back in time as you explore the 18th-century plantation museum, the only one of its kind in Louisiana. On this 5-hour tour (including travel time from New Orleans,) you’ll see museum exhibits, memorial artwork, and restored buildings. Learn about an important part of American history as recorded from first-person slave narratives.
Start the tour at the designated meeting point in New Orleans and journey to the historic Whitney Plantation, one of the antebellum estates located along the Mississippi River.
You'll cross the Bonnet Carre Spillway, a flood outlet for the river, and see a panoramic view of Lake Pontchartrain on your way to the plantation. Pass by the Evergreen, Felicity and St. Joseph plantations, where rich crops of sugar cane, cotton, and indigo from these fertile lands once traveled to various ports of trade.
3 hr - Arrive at the Whitney Plantation, which dates back more than 260 years and is now a working museum dedicated to the understanding of slavery in the American South. Visit museum exhibits and restored buildings including historical slave cabins, some of which remain from the original 22 on-site. See the Big House, which is one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish Creole architecture in Louisiana, and learn about the daily life of former slaves at Whitney as recorded by the Federal Writers' Project. Tour at your own pace, and if you choose, download the Whitney Plantation app for the self-guided tour of the plantation. At the end of your experience, you're returned to central New Orleans.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Excellent organisation and driver. Amazing location with great recorded explanations for the self tour. Worth a visit if interested in the history of slavery. I recommend it highly.
We did the self-guided tour because the guided ones were sold out, but it was still a thoroughly informative experience. I enjoyed being able to explore at my own pace. A must-do experience for not only NOLA visitors but residents as well.
Took the Greyline bus and listened to the audio self-your, at our own pace. The site was flat, well-marked and easy to walk around and navigate. The artistic sculptures of enslaved children and memorials with names are extremely effecting, and simply heartbreaking. These and other curatorial decisions like moving the cabins to the field near the main house, and lining the paths with the sugar boiling vessels, really bring the entire space to life in an unforgettable way
Favorite part was Alton our bus driver and tour guide. We learned a lot including the difference between a swamp and a marsh. The Whitney Plantation itself was very informative and enlightening. Admirable, educational perspective on slavery and its history. Only downside was that we were done with the tour at least 45 minutes before the bus was due to return.
Gray lines sold tickets to us for a guided tour of the Whitney Plantation. That's not what we got. As the bus was pulling out the driver announced there was no guide. We got headphones at the plantation. We could have driven there ourselves. Very disappointed in being misled and charged for a service not delivered. There were parts of the Whitney you had to have a guide to see.
