Louisiana Bonfire and Cajun Dinner Experience

The small communities just upriver from New Orleans are home to a unique Christmas festivity- building, lighting and gathering around towering bonfires along the Mississippi River levee to light the way for Papa Noel.
A Gray Line exclusive, this intimate guided experience brings locals and visitors together for a private Cajun dinner and bonfire at St. Joseph Plantation, a working sugar cane farm owned by the same family since 1890. Merriment flows as guests learn about Cajun and Creole holiday traditions, sing carols and tour the plantation by candlelight. A cash bar is available for beer & wine.

Advance reservations required. (On Dec. 14 the house tour will be at St. Joseph’s sister property, Felicity Plantation.)

Meeting Point

Gray Line New Orleans

Gray Line Lighthouse Ticket Office, 400 Toulouse St, New Orleans, LA 70130, USA

Departs from the Gray Line Lighthouse Ticket Office at Toulouse St. and the Mississippi River (at the Steamboat Natchez Dock), just one block from Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Please arrive 15 minutes before boarding.

What's included:

• Driver/guide

Not included:

• Hotel pickup

What to expect:

Duration: 5 hours, 15 minutes

Gray Line

400 Toulouse St, New Orleans, Louisiana

Board your coach bus here to begin your tour. Boarding begins at 4:15pm.

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Mississippi River

Louisiana

Celebrate a time honored Louisiana tradition - the lighting of the bonfires on the banks of the Mississippi River! The Bonfire Tour includes round-trip narrated motor coach transportation to view the bonfires that light the way for Papa Noel (our Cajun Santa Claus) to bayou country. A police escort will accompany our “sleigh of coaches” as we draw near to the bonfires.
For many years this Cajun community has built mammoth wooden structures such as cabins, tepees, & riverboats along the Mississippi River levee. Come see the "feux de joie" (fires of joy)! Some walking is necessary.

3 hours

St. Joseph Plantation

3535 Highway 18, , Vacherie, 70090-7073, Louisiana

St. Joseph Plantation is one of the few fully intact sugar cane plantations in the River Parishes. In addition to the Manor Home, this plantation features numerous outbuildings for travelers to explore. These include original slave cabins, a detached kitchen, blacksmith’s shop, carpenter’s shed, and schoolhouse. Several buildings have been moved to their present location from another part of the property, but most remain exactly where they were built.

2 hours • Admission Ticket Included