📍Cajun Pride Swamp Tours
110 Frenier Road
LaPlace, Louisiana 70068
🖥: https://www.cajunprideswamptours.com/
We bought tickets through their website and they had a few options. One option they offer is a Swamp Tour with Hotel pickup & drop-off Shuttle Service. When you select this option, they pick you up from your hotel in one of their buses. Which is nice if you’re visiting New Orleans without any transportation or rental, it’s convenient that they’ll come and pick you up from your hotel! We decided to drive ourselves, and we got a few scenic views including the Bayou and the never-ending cemeteries off the highway. 🚗
– Swamp Tour with transportation: $42
– Swamp Tour alone: $20
It’s only a short drive about 30 minutes Northwest of New Orleans, so the trip was not bad at all! Right off the same exit is where we stopped at a gas station, we were able to pick up a six-pack of beer because Cajun Pride allowed BYOB, which means bring your own booze (beer)! It’s cool that they allow you to do that especially with New Orleans relaxed open-container law. 🍻
As we arrived we got a phone call from Cajun Pride to pick up our tickets from the gift shop. From the desk, we received a green colored ticket. When your Captain is ready for your group, he’ll call you by your ticket color! 🎟
While we waited, we were under a covered patio; they have plenty of bathrooms in the front and more in the back. They do state on their website that they don’t make any stops to use the restrooms, so we made sure to use them beforehand. And in case you didn’t have any time to grab some lunch, they do offer a few options for meals. They even have vegetarian options!🥕
Our tour guides name was Brandon. And before we mention anything else, he was AWESOME!🙌🏼
As soon as we left the dock he let us in on some rules, but we were quickly distracted because we spotted our first alligator within the first 2 minutes of being on the boat. We had no idea that they moved so gracefully in the water, they glide! They almost look like logs in the swamp and you wouldn’t notice them until they started moving, but for the most part they seem like really relaxed and chill animals.
With Cajun Pride, we were exploring the Manchac Swamp. The swamp itself was very peaceful. We went during the time of year where the trees were very green, and the weather was perfect. It was definitely hot out but we heard it gets wayyy hotter. So we totally recommend visiting New Orleans in April/May if you want to escape the Louisiana heat!🔥
Also along the tour we got to see a few historic gravesites and homes, which was cool!
On the side of the boats, there are extensions that Brandon brought down so that he was able to get more “hands-on” with and literally hand-feed the alligators marshmallows and some chicken.
It’s so crazy to see the responses of the alligators. When they’re next to other gators, they seem to hiss at each other, but they didn’t seem as aggressive as you would think alligators to be from National Geographic. As they came up closer to the food is when they would launch and jump.
Brandon has a lot of experience, and you can tell that he loves the gators. He even calls them by their names and recognizes the alligators by their different characteristics. Here in this photo (from Cajun Pride’s main website) is our tour guide, Brandon kissing one of the gators on the head. During our tour, he gets very very close. He’ll pet the alligators and rub their bellies. He’s literally the Alligator Whisperer!! And he even took one of our vlog cameras and got all up on their faces! 😱
The highlight of the tour had to be when we passed around Brandon’s little pets including a crawfish, a few Turtles as well as a few snakes. Yes! He has a couple of snakes, but they are very gentle. This was our first time holding a snake, not going to lie we were a little scared but once you get used to it, its actually kind of cool! 🐍
📸: @sprphotography
And the best part of all we were able to hold a baby alligator named Handbag, formerly Choo as in Jimmy Choo, which is too cute! 🐊😍 Brandon gave us instructions on the best way to hold him, one hand behind his tail and gently holding him by his chest. And if he starts to squirm the best way to calm him down was to bring him closer to your chest, and literally hug him like a little baby. Handbag was so cute! In all honesty, we kinda hogged him from the rest of our group. #whoops
Overall, this is a tour we 100% recommend! We can’t wait to share this post and share our vlog because we literally had the best time! A big thanks to the cute animals and of course, Captain Brandon! Cajun Pride Swamp Tours gave us an unforgettable experience! And we hope everyone checks them out!
Check out our video of the swamp tour below to see our up close encounter with the gators!👇🏼 See ya later alligator! 🐊💕
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