Oak Alley Plantation Tour

General information

Destination	Category
New Orleans, United States	Sightseeing Tours

Program details

Stroll down the time tunnel of Oak Alley and be transported back to the Old South. This guided tour of historic former sugar plantation an hour west of New Orleans offers you a glimpse of the high life lived by slave owners and the misery of the slaves’ lives.

The most striking aspect of the plantation is the first impression. The walk to the main house is made through a quarter-mile-long driveway completely covered, like a tunnel, by 250-year-old oak trees. As a scene setter, it cannot be beaten.

Oak Alley was built in 1839 and belonged to the Roman family until shortly after the Civil War smashed the Southern slave-owning class. As you wander around the immaculately manicured estate and enter the elegant Big House, you will have a sense of just how privileged their lives were. It is hard to believe what unspeakable cruelty the other residents of this plantation suffered. Indeed, over the decades, many who have worked here have encountered ghosts. The human stories behind Oak Alley will be revealed by your guide.

The interior has been preserved to look like it would have during the heyday of the Roman family, who were French creoles. Antiques, four-poster beds, china dolls, candelabras… everything evokes that bygone era. Stand at the veranda and look out at the fields that would have been worked by the slaves in blistering heat while the masters were fanned.

Meeting point: is at 12pm in the Gray Line Lighthouse Ticket Office on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter, with return at about 4.30pm. Video filming is not allowed inside the Big House.