Oak Alley Plantation Tours — Frequently Asked Questions

A gate ticket that includes the Big House exhibit starts at $30 an adult, and a grounds ticket without it starts at $27. Every guided trip listed here already contains that admission, from $75 including the drive from New Orleans.

Yes — every trip that stops at the plantation includes admission in its price. Two listings drive past the gates without going in, and both say so plainly on their card.

The Oak Alley Foundation suggests about two hours, which is what most guided trips allow. Two of them give you three. If the exhibits matter as much as the house, take one of the longer ones: the slavery exhibit alone is billed at an hour.

About 60 miles up the Great River Road, and about 75 minutes by coach. The drive is part of the day rather than a chore — it runs the levee past four other surviving plantation houses.

No. There is no bus or train to Vacherie, and the Foundation warns that rideshare is not reliably available for the trip back. That is why almost every visitor arrives either in a rental car or on a tour that includes the transfer.

The site opens daily at 8:30 a.m.. Ticket sales stop at 4 p.m., the last guided Big House tour leaves at 4:30 p.m., and the grounds close at 4:45 p.m.. The 4 p.m. cut-off is the one that catches people out.

Yes, and it is the only guided part of the visit. A guide in period dress takes you through the ground and upper floors; the exhibits, the quarters and the grounds are all self-guided and you take them at your own pace.

Not inside. Photography is allowed on the upper balcony, and that is where the long view straight down the alley to the levee comes from — the picture most people come for is one you can take.

The grounds, the gift shop, the restrooms and the ramped basement level are. The Big House tour is stairs and is not, and the Foundation offers an iPad tour of the upper floor instead. One coach trip here carries a folding wheelchair with 48 hours’ notice to the operator.

The pairings that add Whitney Plantation, which is a museum of slavery rather than a house museum. Travellers who take the Oak Alley-only trips regularly say the interpretation there leans towards the house and the family.

Airboats are fast and open, and carry a 48-inch height minimum plus restrictions on pregnancy, back and heart conditions. Covered swamp boats and pontoons are slower, shaded, and take everyone. Both run about 90 minutes to an hour and 40.

Almost all of them refund in full up to 24 hours ahead. Two do not: one needs two days’ notice, and the private double-plantation day refunds nothing at all. Each card carries its own window, so read the one you are booking.

Not on any trip that stops at Oak Alley. There is a restaurant and a gift shop about a block from the house, and most itineraries leave free time that covers it. The one listing with a buffet lunch included is a three-plantation day that passes Oak Alley without stopping.

Between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. depending on the trip. The half-days go earliest and are back for the afternoon; the swamp combinations start later and run to about five or six in the evening.

For a guided trip, yes — several sell out, and one operator reports an average booking made 23 days ahead. If you are driving yourself, the binding limit is that ticket sales stop at 4 p.m., not that the day sells out.

For the double row of live oaks running a quarter of a mile from the river to the front steps. Steamboat passengers on the Mississippi named the place for the trees long before the name stuck officially; the house was originally Bon Séjour.

28, in two rows of fourteen — and the Big House carries 28 columns, one for each tree. The trees pre-date the house by roughly a century.

The house was built between 1837 and 1839 by people enslaved by Jacques Télesphore Roman, under an overseer named George Swainy. Roman’s father-in-law, the architect Joseph Pilié, is the probable designer.

Bon Séjour, meaning pleasant sojourn. It was a sugar operation under Valcour Aime from 1830, and Aime exchanged it with his brother-in-law Jacques Télesphore Roman in 1836.

Yes. It was listed on the National Register and designated a National Historic Landmark on 2 December 1974.

A self-guided exhibit set in reconstructed quarters, covering the people enslaved on this plantation and life after emancipation. The Foundation asks visitors to allow at least an hour for it, and it also maintains a public database of the people it has been able to name.

An exhibit built around a three-dimensional map of the Roman family holdings. It explains how sugarcane was grown, cut and processed here, and how the same land is farmed today. Allow fifteen to twenty minutes.

Yes, it is a working forge. It stands among the outbuildings between the house and the levee, and it is included in both gate tickets.

Two: the Roman family tomb and the Stewart family graveyard. Both are on the grounds and both are included in the self-guided part of the visit.

Four a year: New Year’s Day, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Otherwise it opens seven days a week.

The Foundation publishes adult rates and discounts for seniors over 65, military and AAA members, and does not put a child band on its public pages. Check the official ticket page for current family pricing before you travel.

There is a restaurant and a gift shop about a block from the house, along a path shaded by the oaks with benches on the way. Nothing on the guided trips includes a meal, so budget for it or bring something.

There are cottages on the property, booked directly with the Foundation. No guided trip from New Orleans includes them, and they are a separate arrangement from any day ticket.

Yes, there is a car park at the visitor entrance and it costs nothing. Overnight RV parking is not permitted.

From 9 to 55 depending on the trip, and the cap is on every card that states one. Where an operator does not publish a maximum, the row is left off rather than filled with a guess.

One: a private double-plantation day that pairs Oak Alley with Laura Plantation and collects you from any address in the city. It is the only non-refundable booking of the eighteen, so treat the date as fixed.

It adds two to three hours and between $40 and $95 depending on the boat. If wildlife is part of why you came to Louisiana, yes. If you want the plantation and an early evening back in the Quarter, take a half-day instead.

Walking shoes, and something for both sun and rain. Most of the visit is outdoors, the lawn has no shade at midday, and the paths between the house, the quarters and the restaurant are uneven in places.

The Foundation does not publish a standing public calendar, so there is no season to plan around. A Christmas bonfire evening on the levee recurs in early December and is ticketed separately from day admission; confirm the date with the Foundation before you build a trip around it.

Yes. The cheaper of the two gate tickets, at $27, leaves out only the Big House interior. It still includes every outdoor exhibit, the reconstructed quarters and the full run of the grounds.

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