Houmas House: Guided Mansion Tour & Estate Gardens Near New Orleans

4.66

(627 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing I noticed pulling up to Houmas House was this almost movie-like hush — just cicadas buzzing and the sunlight flickering through giant oaks dripping with Spanish moss. It’s about an hour from New Orleans, but it felt like we’d slipped into a different century. Our guide, Miss Evelyn (she wore this blue hoop skirt that swished when she walked), waved us over and started telling us about sugarcane and old Louisiana families before we even stepped inside. I could smell something sweet in the air, maybe gardenias or just the river nearby — hard to pin down.

Inside the mansion, every room had its own story. Miss Evelyn let us touch the banister (smooth as glass) and pointed out a portrait of a little girl who apparently still “visits” sometimes — she winked when she said it, so who knows. The air was cool and smelled faintly of old wood and polish. I’m not usually into antiques, but seeing all those artifacts up close made it feel more real than any museum. We wandered through rooms filled with sunlight and shadows, listening to stories about the people who lived here — some sad, some kind of wild.

Afterwards, we wandered through the gardens on our own. There were these bursts of color everywhere — azaleas, roses — and I kept hearing frogs croaking by one of the ponds. It was humid but not uncomfortable; honestly, I lost track of time just walking those paths under huge trees. We grabbed lunch at Dixie Café (shrimp po’boy for me), sitting outside where you can watch people come and go. Someone at another table tried to pronounce “étouffée” and their friend nearly spit iced tea laughing — made me smile.

I didn’t expect to feel so connected to a place like this. Maybe it was the way our guide told stories like she’d lived them herself or just how quiet everything felt after New Orleans’ noise. Either way, I still think about that sunlight slanting through old windows.