New Year – Yours to Explore!
The new year means new adventures and new paths to explore! The Cajun Coast is full of new possibilities throughout its age-old, mystical waterways and the cities and towns that have built up along its fresh and saltwater shores. With its seductive waterways and hypnotic beauty, you can plan to make magical memories as you explore the Cajun Coast this year!
And, let’s not forget festival season kicks off with the incomparable Mardi Gras! Balls, parades, and Mardi Gras festivities mark this season of frivolity, celebrated up to Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras Day, February 21 this year. Officially, Mardi Gras begins on January 6, the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, and the King Cakes of just about every variety imaginable can be found on the Cajun Coast! You can check out our Mardi Gras page for a list of locations. CajunCoast.com/MardiGras Tag us on social #cajuncoastmardigras to let us know your favorites (or other spots to add).
There are so many ways to find a new adventure on the Cajun Coast! And, we’ve made paddling the Atchafalaya Basin easy to navigate. Not only do we have Paddling Trails with maps and difficulty levels, so you’ll know where to put your oar in the water, but Tours by Steven now has guided Kayak Tours, so you don’t even need to bring your kayak along. If you would like a little more distance from the water, take a pontoon boat with local swamp tour operators, like Captain Caviar, who provide entertaining and educational tours of the beauty and mystery of the Atchafalaya waters.
After all that waterway exploration, you’re bound to be hungry! We’ve got you covered! Everything is delicious, so you can take your taste buds on a new adventure as well – try étouffée, jambalaya, gumbo, sauce piquant, and seafood so fresh it was probably swimming in the Gulf this morning! Be sure to save room for dessert! The Cajun Coast is sugar country, so sweets from pralines to bread pudding are worth the calories! (You can dance it off later to some Zydeco rhythms) See our dining page and plan to eat your way throughout the region.
You could work off those pounds in the mesmerizing beauty of our great outdoors – with year-round, mild temperatures, you can hike or bike even in winter! Of course, check the weather before you head out, and remember we do get our fair share of winter showers, so pack appropriately.
Or, if you’d prefer your exercise in jumping up and down over your casino winnings, Amelia Belle Casino or Cypress Bayou Casino-Hotel, Louisiana’s first land-based casino, have plenty of opportunities. In addition to slots and table games, you’ll find amazing dining at Cypress Bayou.
We also have cool museums to add a little learning to your adventures! Learn something new in the new year, including learning about the many cultures who settled this area, such as the Chitimacha, the first settlers of the region. Their basket-weaving skills are legendary, and you can see their work on display at the Chitimacha Museum in Charenton. We also have museums highlighting aviation pioneers, and you can even walk about an oil rig on the Cajun Coast!
So, come explore and find a new you in the new year on the Cajun Coast!
It’s the Most Wonderful Time!
Any time is a good time to visit the Cajun Coast, but Christmas is an especially magical time! Christmas on the Cajun Coast finds holiday events with a Cajun twist – from Papa Noel being pulled on a shrimp boat by his team of gators to feasting on Cajun fare to twinkling lights making the beauty of this area even more spectacular! Come Christmas on the Cajun Coast!
Along with traditional Christmas tree lightings, caroling, and concerts, holiday features include Victorian Christmas at Grevemberg House and Shadowlawn with historic tours of other homes and churches, as well as Christmas lights on the bayou and boat parades! Plan your route to see the amazing holiday light displays throughout the Cajun Coast! Park and walk along the beautiful Bayou Teche to see the Christmas Lights in Franklin. Tune your radio to 88.9 and enjoy the Centerville Light Show which runs nightly from 5:30 PM – midnight (weather permitting). The Traditional Idlewild Plantation Christmas Lighting in Patterson is a driving tour that runs from 5 to 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Kemper Williams Park in Patterson for $2 per car (weather permitting). Visits from Santa may look more like Pere Noel with his team of alligators instead of reindeer, so see the Christmas Events page for all the details and don’t miss a single event! 
And in a place where we live to eat instead of eating to live, the holidays brings that up to a magical place! Try scrumptious, Cajun bread pudding with a Chantilly sauce and gumbos made with the freshest catch from coastal waters. Even cookies for St. Nick might be pralines or divinity. Check out local restaurants and dine like a king this holiday season.
Black Friday pales in comparison to Small Business Saturday (and the rest of the holiday season) on the Cajun Coast! Main Street shops, dressed for the holidays, beckon you with local shopping and quaint, one-of-a kind buys, as well as tastes of Louisiana cuisine and cookbooks to bring back home. Take home keepsakes of your travels along with great memories and find something special for those special someones in your life. There are plenty of holiday shopping specials, so check the calendar for events like Moonlight Monday or Mingle & Jingle and come shop the Cajun Coast!
Come Christmas on the Cajun Coast and leave the holiday headaches behind! Let us entertain and feed you, and we’ll even do the dishes! And, with such great rates, you’ll be able to spend more on unique gifts for the whole family! Make your reservations now at holiday rates!
So, check out the complete list of holiday events, download your list to check it twice, and plan to Christmas on the Cajun Coast!
De-Stress This Season
The holidays can be stressful, but the Cajun Coast has your path to de-stress this season! Take in the beauty of the Atchafalaya Basin, shop main street towns all dressed up for the holidays, and eat your way through spots with the freshest of seafood and Cajun & Creole delights as well as a flurry of desserts in one of the top sugar-producing areas of our state!
Get up-close with nature on our paddling trails, including the new Franklin Paddling Trailhead, or take a Tours by Steven Bayou Teche Kayak adventure! If a covered, pontoon boat is more your speed, take an entertaining journey through the swamps with Captain Caviar! You can even walk out into the swamps on the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge Boardwalk.
Escape for a little time to yourself, or bring the family along to escape from the everyday stressors of the holidays. Focus on family as you roam our trails and relax in our parks, getting away from it all. We have itineraries, just for the kids, or sorted by your kind of getaway, so check them out and make your to-do list!
If Main Street shopping amazing dining, and all the trappings of an idyllic holiday season are your idea of the perfect getaway, we’ve got you covered on the Cajun Coast! Our beautiful, historic towns dress up for the holidays, featuring lighting ceremonies, tours, celebrations, shopping, and the jolly old elf himself to get you in the holiday spirit! See our complete list of activities for the holiday season!
Shopping is as bountiful as a Thanksgiving table on the Cajun Coast. Offerings throughout the area will fill your stocking with eclectic gift options! Holiday shopping events, like Mistletoe & Moss Holiday Market will get all your holiday gift-giving knocked out in no time!
Give the gift of memories this holiday season. We even have great hotel rates to make your holidays even sweeter on the Cajun Coast!
Fall Fests & Ghostly Fun
Fall not only features Halloween’s spooky fun, but it is also harvest time with cooler temps for outdoor activities, so on the Cajun Coast that means a lot of festivals to celebrate! You will want to schedule your visit to the Cajun Coast in October, since every weekend features a festival full of fun!
Bikers on the Bayou is Back! Whether you are a motorcycle enthusiast or not, you are welcome to come out to the fun in Franklin, Saturday, Oct. 1. There will be live music and lots of food, including a black pot cook-off, along with plenty of vendors for shopping!
Catch the Tour du Teche racers as they come into Franklin Saturday night, October 8th and leave out early Sunday, October 9th at Parc Sur La Teche. These racers travel 135 miles from Port Barre to Berwick in this 3-day race. You could also get in on the racing action for the full tour or shorter racers from Morey Park in Patterson.
October 15 brings a new event to the Cajun Coast – the Halloween Scare Fair, hosted by Couyon Creations in Lawrence Park in Morgan City with music, food trucks, haunted areas & costume contests. The Patterson Main Street Festival will also not disappoint with FREE entry, great live music, and plenty of craft & food vendors at Morey Park.
Oct 22 Features fun for pets (and their owners) at the Morgan City Petting Zoo Fall Fest along with the Morgan City Trunk or Treat with live music and lots of goodies for young and old.
The Harvest Moon Festival is also in full-swing to get your holiday shopping kicked off! The Franklin Main Street Merchants will be decked out in full fall decor, with scarecrow contests, hayrides, pet parade, pumpkin patch, cornhole tournaments, a 5k, live music and even a Sugar Showdown Bake Off! Don’t miss the festivities, October 29!
Harvest Moon Fest – Oct. 29
And ghostly sightings don’t limit themselves to the Halloween season on the Cajun Coast! You can take advantage of Tours by Steven’s Ghost Walk or Captain Caviar’s haunted tours all year, but the spirits do seem a little more animated during Halloween on the Cajun Coast. See our Ghost Page for details and other ghost stories!
So come out for fall festivities, ghostly sightings, and plenty of fun on the Cajun Coast this fall.
Top 10 FREE and CHEAP Things to do with the Kids on the Cajun Coast
Even as school gets started, come weekend on the water on the Cajun Coast! Back to School means extra costs, so we’ve compiled a list of the Top 10 FREE & CHEAP Things to Do with the Kids!
1) Kids will enjoy learning about the oil industry on this retired oil rig and the many ways oil is used at the International Petroleum Museum & Exposition, the “Mr. Charlie.”
2) Visit the Wedell-Williams Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum (A Louisiana State Museum).
3) Tour the Chitimacha Museum in Charenton. The Chitimacha were the first settlers to the area and lived in and around the Atchafalaya Basin. The museum documents their history, culture and their efforts in preservation.
4) Walk the “Great Wall,” a 21-foot seawall. Built for flood protection, visitors can climb up for a bird’s eye view of the traffic in the Atchafalaya River, one of the busiest rivers in the state.
5) Southwest Reef Lighthouse in Berwick. This iconic symbol in Berwick is one of only 3 lighthouses in Louisiana that are easily accessible, and visitors can see the structure up-close for FREE at the Everett S. Berry Memorial Lighthouse Park. A Fresnel lens and fog bell similar to what would have been used in the lighthouse are displayed in the lobby of Berwick Town Hall, located 2 blocks west of the park on Third Street. If you have a Lighthouse Passport (available from https://uslhs.org/products/items/lighthouse-passport), bring it by the Berwick Town Hall during regular business hours for a stamp!
6) With a self-guided driving trail, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area will take you on an adventure, showcasing the dramatic affect water has had on this area.
7) Byway drives along with biking, paddling and hiking trails, create last memories. The Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge and Boardwalk in Franklin will keep your nature-lover happy as well.
8) Check out the Swamp Nature Habitat at the Cajun Coast Visitors Center. Mama alligator Cayenne and her baby (not so little any more!) Paprika, might peek out to say, “Hi” along with their swamp friends.
9) Splash Pads and Spray Parks are always a fun cool-off for the kiddos! Check out the park in Bayou Vista!
10) Indulge in a Louisiana Snowball from one of our many vendors! We’ve compiled a list of Cool Treats, including these icy, sugary concoctions – let us know your favorite!
Celebrate at the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival
Come celebrate at Louisiana’s most unique and oldest chartered harvest festival on Labor Day Weekend! Beginning nearly 90 years ago as a blessing of the shrimp harvest and a celebration of the many who labored in the deep Gulf waters, the petroleum industry was added in 1967 to also honor this important industry. The Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival has grown from a simple event honoring these industries, to the 5-day extravaganza it is today! It features great food (shrimp just about any way you can cook it), continuous, FREE live music, arts & crafts, children’s activities, and traditional events, such as the blessing of the fleet and boat parade.
This fest with a unique name celebrates the unique culture of the Cajun Coast. Food tents feature Cajun and Creole dishes as well as a variety of festival favorites. Artists and crafters showcase their unique merchandise and artistic masterpieces. A street parade, water parade with blessing of the fleet, and fireworks on the Atchafalaya River, mark the joie de vivre, joy of living, so prominent in the Cajun way of life.
And no festival in Louisiana is complete without good music! From Country to Cajun to cover favorites, check out the music line-up and plan to jam to your favorites.
The blessing of the fleet is a special part of the festival, and giving thanks for the harvest begins with Mass in the Park under the oaks in Lawrence Park on Sunday. After the water blessing from the Morgan City docks and celebrations on the Atchafalaya River, a Certificate of Blessing and a prayer card of St. Brendan the Navigator, patron Saint of Seafarers is presented to each participant.
And new to the festival this year, aside from a stunning, new annual festival poster, is the Petro Pit, a special VIP Tent near the music stage with two-day access to special events and other amenities. These will go fast, so get your tickets now!
The Shrimp & Petroleum Festival has been honored as a Festival of the Year by the Louisiana Fairs & Festivals Association, a Top 100 American Bus Association event and a top 20 Southeast Tourism Society event. It was even noted by Time magazine as “…the best, the most unusual, the most down-home, the most moving and the most fun that the country has to offer.”
Come join in the fun – make your reservations now for Labor Day weekend on the Cajun Coast!