Laura Plantation: The Creole Big House, Then the 1840s Cabins
A guided tour through four generations of one Louisiana Creole family and the people they enslaved, drawn from a family memoir and archival records.
Laura is a Creole sugar farm in Vacherie, on the River Road about an hour's drive from central New Orleans. This guided walk follows four generations of one Louisiana Creole family and the people they enslaved, from the main house out to the original 1840s cabins. The operator bases the tour on Laura Locoul Gore's memoir, Memories of the Old Plantation Home, and on archival documents from the United States and France. The listing calls each story a documented, personal account.
The booking covers the guided tour and is fully refundable up to 24 hours before your start time. Getting there is up to you, tips are not included, and drinks and snacks are available for purchase.
Laura Plantation Guided Tour: Big House & Original Slave CabinsVacherie, Louisiana · About 75 minutes · Tours in English or Frenchwww.viator.comInside the 1805 Maison Principale
According to the operator, work on the main house began in 1804 and took eleven months, carried out by highly skilled enslaved builders. The house stands raised above the ground on brick columns. The operator's visit plan takes you through the raised basement, the galleries, the men's and women's parlors and the service rooms. Outside, the walk passes three gardens: a French formal garden, the kitchen potager and a banana grove the plantation calls BananaLand.
The listing notes that only the ground floor of the main house is ADA accessible.
Out to the 1840s Cabins
The route includes the original 1840s slave cabins, and the operator's visit plan takes you inside one of them. The operator says this is where the West African tales of Compair Lapin, known in English as Br'er Rabbit, were recorded. The plantation's own research dates its first register of enslaved people to 1808: seventeen first names, among them people from five African ethnic groups. The self-guided exhibit From the Big House to the Quarters opened in a restored overseer's cottage in February 2017. It is open daily from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with purchase documents and rare photographs that bring the names and faces of the farm's enslaved people back into view.
Three Tours on One Listing
This listing sells three versions. The Full Site Guided Tour covers the main house, gardens and cabins in about 75 minutes, and the French tour, Visite Guidée en Français, takes the same route. The Union Soldiers tour runs about 50 minutes, follows the nine enslaved men who left the plantation during the Civil War to fight for the Union, and does not go inside the main level of the house.
- As of October 19, 2026, the plantation's hours page lists French tours at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM and the Union Soldiers tour at 10:30 AM, none of them on Wednesdays or Sundays.
- This listing has no Wednesday departures for the rest of 2026.
- Children five and under go free on the booking, with separate prices for ages 6 to 12 and 13 to 17.
Drive Out, Check In, Leave the Backpack
Plan to drive yourself. The listing warns against taxis, Uber and Lyft because the plantation is rural and you will not find one for the ride back; the operator's only exception is a driver who waits in the parking lot to take you back. The operator says parking is free. The operator's booking notes require backpacks to stay in your car or be checked at the gift shop, with no exceptions, because the rooms are small.
- The operator asks arriving guests to check in at the front window of the Plantation Store, and the listing accepts a mobile or paper ticket.
- As of October 19, 2026, this listing's calendar offers English tours at 10:00 AM, 10:40 AM, 11:20 AM, 12:20 PM, 1:20 PM and 2:20 PM, with up to 28 guests per guide. If a group is full, you may be asked to wait for the next one.
- The plantation is closed on New Year's Day, Mardi Gras Day, Easter Sunday, July 4, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and on December 24 its last tour is at noon.
Laura Plantation is at 2247 Highway 18 in Vacherie, Louisiana. Part of the tour is outdoors and it runs in all weather, so wear good walking shoes. Leave time afterward for the exhibit in the overseer's cottage.