Which Swamp Tours Are the Best?
Sitting in your office three months prior to your 3 days of things to do in New Orleans, you are asking yourself, “Which swamp tours are the best?” With all of the options for swamp tours out there on trip advisor, yelp, and instagram, make sure to do a little homework beforehand. Take a look below to help you decide which swamp tour is the best.
What Makes Swamp Tours Awesome!
- Capturing memories, come away with some amazing photos of you and your partner with some wildlife in the background.
- Exercising, you know how much you eat on vacation, here is a chance to work a little of it off.
- Feeling a sense of freedom and making your own path. Using a kayak you can wind through a cypress grove and have a great chance of approaching wildlife with silence and awe.
- Gaining a respect for the importance of the swamps from an eco tour guide.
What Makes Swamp Tours NOT Awesome
- Feeding the wildlife, I often see photos of people feeding marshmallows to get alligators to jump out of the water for a photo opportunity.
- Holding the wildlife, let's not make pets of them and cuddle them like our new puppy.
- Sitting with no exercise for 2 hours on benches peeking over someone's shoulder to watch alligators get baited. 20+ tourists crammed onto a motorized boat. You are a human, not a sardine.
- Listening to a motor scare off most of the wildlife.
Keep the Wildlife Wild
- Don't handle the wildlife, and definitely don't dress them up.
- Don't be 3 deep on a crowded boat from the 1960s
- Don't feed the wildlife marshmallows!!!?
Make a difference in our environment
Join the Pearl River Clean Sweep. While this tour was passing a sinking houseboat, everyone jumped at the chance to help save his belongings.
Compare the Three Areas
New Orleans Kayak Swamp Tours runs eco tours in three different areas. Here is an honest look at what makes each one great, and where each one falls a little short, so you can pick the swamp tour that is best for you.
Honey Island Swamp Tour
Why it's great
- Variety: swamp houseboats, old growth cypress trees, a rope swing and a river.
- Trash: on a positive note, it gives you an opportunity to feel like you made a small but important difference. Pick up a piece or a whole boatload on your tour, or come back to join our river clean up.
- The notorious Honey Island Swamp Monster possible sighting...
- River to swim in, during the hot summer months, swimming in the river mid way on the tour, is a great opportunity to cool off.
- Rope swing!
Why it isn't great
- Highway noise can linger throughout this swamp tour, we do get far away from it, but you can often still hear it.
- Trash, the Pearl River and Old Pearl river funnel trash from numerous sources, this can be a wake up call for action! Get WOKE people.
- A paper mill waste spill in 2011 killed numerous fish and wildlife, the river has rebounded with plenty of wildlife.
- Get your perspective flipped; gain a deeper respect of the need for environmental protection and start changing our perspective of the swamps as a dumping ground to that of an important filtering system for our groundwater and more!
Only open during summer, roughly 2 hours.
Manchac and Maurepas Swamp Tour
Why it's great
- Stunning beauty, picturesque photo opportunities. Check out some drone video of the swamp tour area.
- Peaceful, although we start near the highway, the noise disappears on this tour quickly.
- Active wildlife: Wilderness Management area.
- One of the closer swamps, so less car travel time.
- No motorized swamp tours operate here.
- Great kayak fishing Louisiana fish species.
Why it isn't great
- No bathroom facilities at launch, there are bathroom facilities at the gas station just 2 miles down the road.
Transportation available, our most popular tour, roughly 2 to 2.5 hours.
Bayou Bienvenue
Why it's great
- Stunning beauty, picturesque photo opportunities. New Orleans city skyline is a beautiful view.
- Peaceful, although we start near the highway, the noise disappears on this tour quickly.
- Active wildlife: Bird Migratory area.
- One of the closest bayous, so less car travel time. Only 7 miles from the French Quarter!
- Bathrooms available at the marina we launch from.
- Great kayak fishing of the Louisiana fish species.
Why it isn't great
- Trees are younger, after Katrina wiped out this area, the levee now protects this area from too much saltwater intrusion.
Only 15 minutes from the Quarter, daily, roughly 3 hours.
More From the Swamp
A few more photos from our guests out on the water.