Explore Bayou St. John and City Park: A Unique Outdoor Driving Adventure in New Orleans

In the late 1600s, the French set out to establish a city at the mouth of the Mississippi River to control trade in the area. The current location of New Orleans was chosen due to it's proximity to an old Native American trail that connected the lake and the river through Bayou St. John, and allowed back door access to the area from the Gulf of Mexico without having to travel up the perilous mouth of the river. It was because of this very trail and the Bayou St. John that the city of New Orleans exists in it's current location.

On this 3 hour adventure we'll travel in a comfortable mini-van and take you through some of New Orleans oldest neighborhoods and trace this old trail to the very spot the city began.

The tour begins on the edge of the French Quarter and travels the very ridge where this original trail once existed. We'll go through an historic old Creole neighborhood and see historic mansions and houses that are hundreds of years old. We'll pass through the historic Treme and see where jazz got its start, into the Bayou St. John and Fairground neighborhoods to see some more historic houses as well as the bayou itself, before visiting the majestic oak trees of City Park and grabbing some beignets. Then we'll hit up a local wild life refuge to see some cool birds and maybe a gator, and then we'll travel to the lakefront and the area where the Voodoo queen herself Marie Laveau once held her rituals.