Sustainable Travel To Cajun Country

The mission of these tours is to promote education and conservation, not only of the local ecosystems but of the culture and traditions that make Southern Louisiana unique. We accomplish this through our day to day ethical practices, our small group learning sessions and our partnerships with independent loca operators, people who are naturalists and cultural guardians whose values match our aim to help preserve and protect.

Apart from our commitment to not feeding wildlife, we help to protect the ecosystem in various other ways. We provide reusable metal water bottles and local fruit to help minimize food and drink waste. Our employees participate in local waterway cleanup efforts, and we direct guests who are interested to further reading on Louisiana’s environmental challenges and to organizations where they can donate or become involved. We also offer kayak swamp tours when possible in order to avoid water, air and noise pollution and to minimize disturbance of wildlife.

We work with 2 different kayak companies run by people born and raised paddling these waterways. These guides have depths of knowledge about the local flora and fauna, and they understand the extreme threat that this ecosystem is under and educate folks on that in every tour. The best thing we can do to help these swamps and bayous is to spread the knowledge that they desperately need our protection. Our guides actively encourage direct and indirect participation in that process, and constantly clean garbage from the waterways when they are out on tours.

On most tours we bring guests to Whitney Plantation, originally founded in 1752 and renovated in 2014 to be the only museum and memorial to the African slave trade in the country. The tours at Whitney provide a deep understanding of how the slave trade came about, what life on slave plantations was like and the stories of individuals who experienced it. The guides promote education as a means to create unity and intercultural understanding, and encourage guests to learn more and participate in efforts to protect civil liberties. We feel it is an important experience for anyone visiting the Deep South.

On our Cajun Country tours we take guests to an organic farm that grows pecans and raises chickens and sheep, to learn about how they run their business in a sustainable way while keeping up with the demands of the modern market. We also provide a private Cajun cooking lesson using local organic ingredients. Our learning sessions on this tour also include one with a legendary Zydeco musician and cultural guardian, and another with a master naturalist who guides us through the beautiful Lake Martin Wildlife Refuge.

To learn more about traveling with us, visit our tour details and itinerary page.