Whitney Plantation Tour New Orleans: Slavery History Guide

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/21

Duration5h 25m

GroupUp to 55

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Hear enslaved people's own words as you walk through restored cabins and the Big House

A 5-hour tour from New Orleans to Whitney Plantation, the only museum in Louisiana dedicated to slavery's history, includes round-trip transport and 2 hours to explore the grounds self-guided using the Whitney Plantation app. The audio tour draws from first-person slave narratives recorded by the Federal Writers' Project, and you can add a 90-minute swamp tour on the pontoon if you want. Wheelchair users have access to the gift shop, restrooms, and grounds, though the main house first floor only and the slave quarters are viewable but not enterable; uneven gravel paths cover the plantation grounds.

5h 25m

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Whitney Plantation from New Orleans

Meet at New Orleans meeting point
Travel to Whitney Plantation via Bonnet Carre Spillway
Pass Evergreen, Felicity, and St. Joseph plantations
Arrive at Whitney Plantation museum
Explore museum exhibits and restored buildings
Tour slave cabins and Big House
Use audio app for self-guided tour
Return to central New Orleans

The Experience

How do you actually learn what slavery meant at a specific place? The Whitney Plantation answers that by centering the voices of enslaved people themselves. You start from central New Orleans and ride an air-conditioned vehicle across the Bonnet Carré Spillway—a flood outlet for the Mississippi River—passing Lake Pontchartrain and three other antebellum estates (Evergreen, Felicity, and St. Joseph) where sugar cane, cotton, and indigo once grew. The plantation itself dates back more than 260 years and sits along the river, and when you arrive, the tour is yours to set.

You spend roughly 2 hours on the grounds with the Whitney Plantation app, which you download to your phone or tablet before you go. The app guides you through museum exhibits, restored buildings, and original slave cabins—some of the 22 that once stood on the property. You'll see the Big House, one of Louisiana's finest examples of Spanish Creole architecture, and the audio narration pulls directly from first-person accounts the Federal Writers' Project collected from formerly enslaved people. The app works in six languages, so the experience adapts to how you understand it. The pace is entirely yours; there's no group moving through together, no guide waiting.

If you want to extend the day, you can add a 90-minute pontoon swamp tour (English-language guide) to see the ecosystem of the bayou. Either way, you're back in central New Orleans by the end of the afternoon. The vehicle is wheelchair accessible, and the plantation grounds are accessible too, though the paths are uneven gravel; the main house interior is not wheelchair-accessible, but the first floor is, and you can view the slave quarters from outside.

What’s included

Round-trip transport in an air-conditioned vehicle from central New Orleans.
2 hours at Whitney Plantation to explore the museum exhibits, restored buildings, and slave cabins at your own pace.
self-guided audio tour via the Whitney Plantation app in six languages.
access to the grounds, gift shop, and restrooms.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Gray Line New Orleans

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to understand slavery through the words and experiences of enslaved people themselves, not through a plantation owner's perspective. The self-guided format and app-based narration let you spend as much time as you need at each cabin or exhibit, and the six-language option means you can listen in the language that feels right to you.