Sit back and enjoy the views or a drink at the bar while journeying down the Mississippi river. Learn about New Orleans' complex, but interesting story, focusing on the critical Battle of New Orleans. Join a cruise narrated by a local guide and embark on a journey into the past as you head downriver to the Chalmette Battlefield at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. As you travel to the battlefield, learn about the settlement of New Orleans, its river, and the historical landmarks that line the banks of the Mississippi River. As you cruise, treat yourself to a traditional lunch on board. (If relevant option selected.) Stop at the battlefield and hear about the legacy of the area on a 1-hour guided tour along the shore with a talk by National Park Rangers. After, return to the starting point where your tour will end. SAMPLE MENU LUNCH: • New Orleans Style Shrimp Pasta • 10” Roast Beef Po-Boy • Creole Jambalaya • Crawfish Bread • Caesar Salad • Red Beans & Rice • Fresh Baked Cookies • Zapps Potato Chips (Menu items are subject to change by season and availability)

Experience the spooky side of New Orleans on a tour of the city and one of its most haunted cemeteries. Listen to chilling tales from your local guide and learn about the darker parts of the city's history. See how an EMF reader is used in real life. First, grab a cocktail or beer at your meeting location before the tour. Then your tour guide will lead the way with an EMF Reader and explain how to use them to search for paranormal activity and to help locate any spirits or paranormal phenomena.  Travel to the St. Patrick Cemetery No. 1, Odd Fellows Rest, and the Charity Hospital Cemetery to explore haunted cemeteries at night. Pass by the The Buckner Mansion and the Hurricane Katrina Memorial along the way.  Finally, see the videos of documented ghosts and spirits that haunt several locations from your tour. Conclude your tour by following your guide to a burial ground of spirits who met their unfortunate fate in a tragic pandemic event.

Designated by Congress as the official WWII museum of the United States, the National WWII Museum is located in downtown New Orleans, where 5 soaring pavilions house historical exhibits, on-site restoration work, a period dinner theater, and restaurants. Purchase your timed tickets in advance to secure your desired entry or movie time. Housed in 5 buildings, the museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world – why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today. The Louisiana Memorial Pavilion features the “D-Day Invasion of Normandy” exhibit and an exhibit telling the story of the war experienced on the Home Front.  The "Campaigns of Courage" area features the “Road to Tokyo” exhibit, which retraces the grueling trail from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo. It also houses the “Road to Berlin” exhibit, recreating actual battle settings and villages as America campaigned to defeat the Axis powers. A two-hour guided tour of these two exhibits, led by an expert docent, is also available to book as an option. The U.S. Freedom Pavilion features actual WW2 airplanes restored to their wartime glory, including the B-17E Flying Fortress, as well as wartime tanks and trucks. Liberation Pavilion, which opens in 2022, will explore the closing months of the war and immediate postwar years, concluding with an explanation of links to our lives today.  In the Solomon Victory Theatre, you will be able to see, hear and feel the epic story of World War II in the exclusive 4D experience “Beyond All Boundaries”, narrated by Tom Hanks. This movie experience requires the purchase of the option which includes the 4-D film.

Meet your guide in New Orleans, then leave the city behind as you travel back in time to the Oak Alley Plantation. Passing by the impressive Lake Pontchartrain. See the plantation's quarter-mile-long alley of oak trees, each over 250 years old, and the cypress trees which border the Mississippi River. Explore the plantation with your guide, and listen to stories of its history dating back to 1839. Learn about the site's former uses and residents, and visit the plantation's on-site exhibitions, Slavery at Oak Alley, Blacksmith Shop, and Sugarcane Theater, to learn more about its past.  Afterwards, travel past several of the area’s plantations as you head to the Manchac Swamp. Explore this privately-owned wildlife refuge, and hear about the legend of the Rougarou werewolf. Take a boat ride across the swamp, and get up close to alligators and other wildlife.

Explore the iconic French Quarter of New Orleans on a carriage tour at night and get introduced to the ghostly lore and legends. Pass by Bourbon Street, Napoleon House, and more while listening to true stories of ghosts, voodoo, and vampires from your guide. With so much paranormal activity happening in the city, the best way to tour these haunted locations is by carriage ride at night. Historical stories of love and tragedy come to life as the professional tour guides explain the legends and lore, in addition to historical narration detailing all major landmarks throughout the French Quarter. On the haunted tour, expect Voodoo galore, and learn about how Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen, applied her magical powers to shift the course of love, luck, and law in New Orleans. Learn about the bevy of haunted restaurants, like Muriel’s, where numerous seances have been held over the years. Witness the site of a 19th-century massacre, said to still hold ghosts of the tragedy.  You may even discover that your hotel is haunted, as the carriage ride rolls past all of the most haunted hotels in the French Quarter. Group carriage tours travel at a leisurely pace and with small groups exceeding no more than 8 passengers per carriage. For a more exclusive experience, you can reserve a private carriage that holds 1 to 4 passengers.

This 2-hour walking tour takes you inside the walls of New Orleans’ oldest and most interesting burial grounds. In the company of a local guide, you’ll explore the ancient maze of above-ground tombs and learn about fascinating local burial practices. After meeting your guide at the Morning Call Coffee Shop, you’ll walk to the cemetery to explore curiosities and hear tales of some of the city’s personalities. You’ll see the final resting place of many of New Orleans’ most notable celebrities. On this tour that’s been recommended by the Travel Channel, A&E, and the History Channel, you’ll learn the history of voodoo and its connection to the French Quarter on a journey back through time.

Step back in time as you visit the Whitney Plantation on this bus day trip from New Orleans. Gain a unique perspective on the enslaved people who lived and worked here through museum exhibits, memorial artwork, restored buildings, and hundreds of first-person slave narratives. In 2014, Whitney Plantation opened its doors to the public for the first time in its 262-year history, as the only plantation museum in Louisiana with a focus on slavery.  The early owners of Habitation Haydel, later known as the Whitney Plantation, became wealthy producing indigo before the plantation transitioned to sugar in the early 1800s.  Whitney is also significant because of the number of historic outbuildings which were added to the site over the years, thus providing a unique perspective on the evolution of the Louisiana working plantation. The Big House is one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish Creole architecture and one of the earliest raised Creole cottages in Louisiana.  The Whitney Plantation Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places. As a site of memory and consciousness, this site pays homage to the slaves on the plantation itself and to all of those who lived elsewhere in the United States.

Visit haunted New Orleans — famous for its spooky sightings, as well as its beautiful and elaborately ornate cemeteries. Learn from your guide the stories of ghosts, past and present, which will chill you to the core, as you wander the grounds with EMF readers and dowsing rods. This cemetery tour is offered under the cover of night. You'll leave the French Quarter behind as your bus creeps along Esplanade Avenue to what used to be the edge of town, but is now the bustling neighborhoods of Mid-City and City Park. There are 42 cemeteries in the New Orleans area, and throughout this experience you will visit several of them. Your guides will discuss the unique burial rituals and practices during the stroll, as you are offered an up-close and personal look at some of the most popular cemeteries.

Experience the disappearing world of Creole Louisiana on a 75-minute guided tour of the Laura Plantation main house, gardens and slave quarters. Located on the West bank of the Mississippi in the heart of Plantation Country – the main house dates from 1805 and has been restored to the time when it functioned as both a family home and the office for the sugar plantation. Visit the raised basement and galleries, men's and women's parlors, service rooms and common rooms. Walk through the 200-year-old sugar plantation homestead, including 3 gardens: Jardin Français, the kitchen potager & BananaLand grove. Continue the tour on the grounds with 12 buildings on the National Register, including animal barns, overseers' cottages and the 1829 Maison de Reprise. Hear intimate stories about four generations of free and enslaved members of the Creole families who lived here. Gleaned from handwritten memoirs and archival documents from the United States and France, each story told in the 1805 Maison Principale, on the grounds, and in the original 1840s slave cabins is a true, personal account of the women, children and men who spent their lives on this sugar farm. Spend time touring the onsite museum exhibit on your own after your tour ends. When Laura Plantation opened to the public in 1994, it became the first historic attraction in Louisiana to include stories of enslaved Africans as part of the tour. Today the permanent exhibit "From the Big House to the Quarters: Slavery on Laura Plantation" is dedicated to telling the authentic story of the enslaved community of this Créole farm.

Discover Mardi Gras magic on a self-guided tour of Mardi Gras World, where artists and craftsmen have designed and built the oldest and biggest parade floats and attractions for each Mardi Gras season in New Orleans since 1947. Begin your tour by receiving your ticket in form of a bead necklace and watch a film which gives an overview of the history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the role Mardi Gras World plays in it to this day. Then, enjoy a slice of the traditional Mardi Gras cake, King Cake, before your self-guided tour leads you through the float den. Explore where Mardi Gras World artists work year-round to build spectacular, one-of-a-kind floats and props, with over 500 floats built and decorated each year. See how the various themed elements are created from scratch or are adapted from elements created for previous themes — from sculpting the elements, to finishing and painting them. There is even an electronic robot that can carve 3-D sculptures. Take photos with some of the finished pieces from various themes over the years, then tour the floats themselves. Get up closer to the floats than is possible during Mardi Gras parades, and find out how these amazing pieces come to life each year. See floats in various stages of completion as they prepare for the upcoming Mardi Gras as much as a whole year before. At the end of the tour, stay and take more pictures with any of the floats if you like. For your convenience, a complimentary shuttle service is provided from stops in Downtown; just call the number provided on your voucher for your nearest stop and to arrange pickup.