Backpacking Diplomacy by Andy A blog dedicated to sharing world culture, travel tips and building community.
Quick Take: Why Visit Louisiana?
Louisiana doesn’t feel like the rest of the United States, and that’s the whole point. This is a state built on a gumbo of cultures, French, Spanish, African, Acadian, Creole, Native American, German, that simmered together for three centuries into something you won’t find anywhere else: a place with its own food, its own music, its own language quirks, and its own way of marking time by festival season. It’s the only state that calls its counties parishes, 64 of them, a holdover from its Catholic colonial roots. From the brass bands of New Orleans to the dance halls of Cajun Country, the plantations along the River Road to the bass lakes up north, Louisiana rewards the traveler willing to slow down and let the good times roll. This guide covers the whole state, region by region, parish by parish. Full disclosure: this one’s personal. I’ve got Louisiana roots, and it remains one of my favorite places on earth to send people.
A State Unlike Any Other
Here’s the honest pitch. Most visitors fly into New Orleans, spend three days in the French Quarter, and fly home thinking they’ve seen Louisiana. They’ve seen a sliver. The real depth of this state is in the places past the Quarter: a fais do-do (Cajun dance party) in a country dance hall, a plate of boudin from a gas station in Acadiana that beats most restaurant meals, a sunrise over a cypress swamp, a small-town festival celebrating everything from crawfish to cane syrup to frogs.
Louisiana is divided, culturally and geographically, into distinct regions that feel almost like different countries. South Louisiana is Catholic, French-influenced, and Cajun and Creole to its core. North Louisiana is Protestant, Anglo, and Southern in the way Mississippi or Arkansas is Southern. The middle is where they meet. Understanding that divide is the key to understanding the state, and this guide is built around it.
A Quick History of Louisiana
Louisiana’s strangeness is a product of its history. Claimed for France in 1682 and named for King Louis XIV, the colony passed to Spain, came back to France, and was then sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the deal that doubled the size of the young country. That French and Spanish colonial era is why Louisiana’s legal system is still based partly on civil law rather than English common law, and why its local divisions are parishes: the colony was officially Roman Catholic, and government was organized around the church’s ecclesiastical parishes. When Louisiana entered the Union in 1812, it did so with 25 parishes; today there are 64.
Two waves of people define the culture. The Acadians, French settlers expelled from Canada by the British in the 1700s, resettled in south-central Louisiana and became the Cajuns, giving the region its language, food, and music. And the Creoles, a complex term that broadly refers to people of colonial French, Spanish, and African descent born in the colony, shaped New Orleans and the river parishes. Layered on top are West African, German, Irish, Italian, Canary Islander, and Native American influences. The result is the cultural gumbo Louisiana is famous for.
The Regions of Louisiana
Louisiana makes the most sense when you think of it in regions, each with its own accent, cuisine, and rhythm. This guide organizes all 64 parishes into the state’s classic cultural-geographic regions. Tap into any region below to explore its parishes.
Here’s the quick orientation:
Greater New Orleans is the cultural megaphone, New Orleans itself plus the surrounding parishes, brass bands, Creole cooking, Mardi Gras, and the mouth of the Mississippi.
Cajun Country (Acadiana) is the French-speaking heart of south Louisiana, centered on Lafayette: dance halls, crawfish boils, boudin, and the legally defined 22-parish home of Cajun and Creole culture.
Plantation Country stretches along the Mississippi and the Florida Parishes around Baton Rouge, the state capital, mixing antebellum history, the River Road, and the piney Northshore.
Crossroads (Central Louisiana) is the meeting point, where the Catholic, Cajun south blends into the Protestant, Anglo north, anchored by Alexandria and historic Natchitoches.
Sportsman’s Paradise (North Louisiana) is the outdoors-and-Southern half of the state, Shreveport, Monroe, bass lakes, piney woods, and a culture closer to the Deep South than the bayou.
What to Do in Louisiana
Eat (Seriously, This Is the Main Event)
Louisiana might be the best eating state in America, and the food splits into two great traditions. Cajun is the rustic, country cooking of Acadiana, gumbo, jambalaya, boudin, crawfish étouffée, cracklins. Creole is the more refined, city cooking of New Orleans, with French and Spanish polish, think shrimp Creole, red beans and rice, beignets, and po’boys. Eat both. For my deeper dives, see my things to do in Lafayette and the New Orleans French Quarter photo essay.
Catch a Festival
Louisiana claims to throw more festivals per capita than anywhere, and it’s believable. There’s a festival for nearly everything: Mardi Gras (statewide, but biggest in New Orleans and, in its rural Cajun form, the Courir de Mardi Gras), the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, the Natchitoches Christmas Festival, and hundreds of small-town celebrations of a single food or tradition. Festival season is reason enough to time a trip.
Hear Live Music
This is the birthplace of jazz and the home of Cajun and zydeco. In New Orleans, catch brass and jazz on Frenchmen Street; in Acadiana, find a dance hall and a fais do-do where the music is in French and everyone, grandparents to grandkids, is dancing.
Get Into the Swamp and Outdoors
Past the cities, Louisiana is water and wilderness: cypress swamps, the vast Atchafalaya Basin, bayous, and the marshes of the Gulf coast. Take a swamp tour, paddle a bayou, or head to Sportsman’s Paradise up north for some of the best freshwater fishing in the country.
Walk Through History
From the antebellum plantations along the River Road (and the essential, unflinching museums among them that tell the story of slavery), to the French colonial core of Natchitoches (the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory), to the UNESCO World Heritage Poverty Point earthworks up north, Louisiana’s history is deep and complicated and worth engaging with honestly.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Louisiana?
Timing matters here. Spring (February to May) is the sweet spot: Mardi Gras (the date moves, falling in February or March), Jazz Fest, festival season in full swing, and comfortable temperatures before the heat sets in. Fall (October to November) is the other good window, cooler, with its own festival calendar. Summer is hot, humid, and storm-prone (hurricane season runs June through November), though it’s also crawfish-into-shrimp season and quieter for crowds. Winter is mild and the off-season, with Christmas traditions like the Natchitoches Festival of Lights and the bonfires on the levee.
How to Get Around Louisiana
A few practical notes. New Orleans (MSY) is the main airport, with smaller hubs in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, Monroe, and Alexandria. New Orleans itself is walkable with streetcars and transit, but for the rest of the state a car is essential, the festivals, dance halls, swamps, and small towns that make Louisiana special are spread across 64 parishes and not served by transit. The drive itself is part of it: the River Road plantations, the scenic byways, and the Creole Nature Trail are destinations in their own right.
Frequently Asked Questions About Louisiana
Louisiana is the only U.S. state that calls its primary divisions parishes (Alaska uses boroughs). It dates to the French and Spanish colonial era, when the colony was officially Roman Catholic and local government was organized around the church’s ecclesiastical parishes. The name stuck after the Louisiana Purchase, and the 1845 state constitution made it official. There are 64 parishes today.
Sixty-four. The largest by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the smallest is Tensas Parish. They range from urban (Orleans Parish, coterminous with the City of New Orleans) to vast and rural (Plaquemines Parish is the largest by area).
Broadly: Cajun refers to the descendants of French Acadians expelled from Canada who settled rural south-central Louisiana, with a rustic country culture, food, and French dialect. Creole historically refers to people of colonial French, Spanish, and African descent born in Louisiana, centered on New Orleans, with a more cosmopolitan culture. The food traditions differ too, Cajun is country cooking, Creole is city cooking with French and Spanish refinement.
Culturally and geographically, Louisiana is often divided into Greater New Orleans, Cajun Country (Acadiana), Plantation Country (the Baton Rouge area and Florida Parishes), Crossroads (Central Louisiana), and Sportsman’s Paradise (North Louisiana). South Louisiana is French-influenced and Catholic; North Louisiana is more Anglo-Protestant and Southern.
Not even close. New Orleans is extraordinary, but the rest of the state, Cajun Country’s dance halls and food, the plantation River Road, historic Natchitoches, the swamps of the Atchafalaya, and the lakes and woods of the north, is where many travelers find the deepest experiences. This guide is built to get you past the French Quarter.
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is a moveable date tied to Easter, falling in February or March, with celebrations building for weeks beforehand. It’s biggest in New Orleans, but the rural Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras in Acadiana is a completely different and equally authentic experience. Confirm the current year’s date before planning.
Explore Louisiana by Region
All 64 parishes, organized by region. Tap a region above to dive into its parishes, with more guides on the way.
This guide is a living page and will be updated as I publish region and parish guides. Last updated June 2026.