Living The Southern Dream: Airboating in Louisiana

If you’re looking to get out of the city and see more of the southern life Louisiana has to offer, exploring the swamps on an airboat tour is the way to go.

For our second visit to USA we were looking to have a little more of an authentic southern experience and get to know some of the locals, and let me tell you – there is no better way then on an airboat flying across a swamp.

We chose to book an airboat tour with Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours after seeing heaps of good reviews online – and also watching a few different reality shows choosing their tours to have a swamp experience. It’s always good to know what you’re getting into!

The Jean Lafitte Swamp tours are led by a local family with native guides, offering you a true Cajun experience. All the guides have grown up on the bayou and know the land and the wildlife better than anyone.

Additionally, the swamp is part of the Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve, with means all the alligators, turtles, snakes, flora and fauna, etc are completely protected and not exposed to external threats or interference.

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Our tour was taken by Randy, who was a cousin of the family that owned the tours and the swampland. He knew absolutely everything there was to know about the swamp and all it’s inhabitants and shared so many interesting facts with us!

He had grown up on the swamp, hunting alligators (legally of course) and camping out with his family. And to add to the experience, he had a southern accent that was so strong it sounded like he was straight out of Swamp People or something.

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It’s incredible how much the American accent changes across the States, I just couldn’t get over Randy’s!! Randy could also spot an alligator from miles away and under the water, we would never have seen them. He was even able to feed a couple of the hungry ones and get them to jump out of the water.

When you’re booking an airboat tour there are two different options – a large airboat ($65 USD per adult or $85 USD with transportation) or a small airboat ($85 USD per adult or $105 USD with transportation).

The airboats are all the same size, the difference is how many people are on your tour. We chose a small airboat due to the large being unavailable for the time we wanted to go and it ended up being so much better. There was only one other couple on our tour, while the large tour that left at the same time had more than 20 people on it.

Great option for only $20 USD more, as we were able to have a much more relaxed and personal tour, with more time to ask questions and able to move around the airboat freely when we stopped.

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Tour Information for Jean Lafitte Swamp Tour

Availability: Daily

Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

Tour Time: 10am & 2pm (12pm & 4pm seasonal)

Pick Up Time: 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm (2:30pm seasonal)

Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours & New Orleans Airboat tours are located about 30 minutes out of New Orleans, you can choose to book your trip with transportation so you don’t have to think about anything at all.

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Check-in 30 minutes prior to your tour time, children under 8 are not permitted to ride. Information is correct as per the publication date of this post, but it’s always a good idea to double check the website to make sure nothing has changed.

If you’re airboating during the cooler months definitely wear some warm clothing, it gets freezing when you’re flying across the swamp!

Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours |\ 6601 Leo Kerner Lafitter Parkway, Marrero || Ph; +1 504 293 2338