Arrived after tour time, but was offered a personal tour instead of waiting for next tour time…read more Friendly staff. Great tour

We really enjoyed this tour. It was incredibly educational…read more The guides were very informative and personable. The education timely!

Great history and presentation. Very interesting facts. Good tour. Cute gift shop. Very…read moreknowledgeable guide.

Melrose Plantation. Came to visit my wife's family in the rural parts of Louisiana and she…read morerecommended we visit this place because she had never been and always wanted to go. I'm a bit into history now so this would have been a great history lesson for my book I'm writing so great at idea all around. What I was expecting to hear and see was your usual plantation stories of slaves and Masters, but what I got was much more inspirational. A plantation, founded and owned by FREE people of color. Marie CoinCoin (pronounced "Quan-Quan" I believe) was an African slave who ended up having a 19 year relationship (and 10 kids) with Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. After being pressured by the local church to end the relationship, he eventually purchased her freedom and CoinCoin began building Melrose, selling tobacco to increase the family fortune. The Métoyer family ended up becoming one of the first families in a community of free people of color. There's a lot more to the history, especially learning about the internationally famed illiterate and self taught Memory artist, Miss Clementine Hunter. The last tour stops at 4:15 and it's $10 for a guided tour or you can roam the gardens and see the outside houses for $5 I believe. The wife ended up finding out she was actually related to the Métoyer family so that was an added bonus to her family tree. Overall, it was definitely worth the visit.

Meghan Schill gave us an excellent, very interesting and historically vibrant tour of the…read moreplantation. Thank you so very much, Meghan! We really enjoyed it!

Free, yes History, yes…read moreNot a lot to see but it's my first plantation to visit. We saw the Magnolia Plantation featured on a favorite show of ours and had to see for ourselves when headed back home to Texas. Simple place yet incredibly interesting. I'm fascinated with history and/or possibly haunted. Anyway wish we could have spent a wee bit more time. Here's our pics from our short and sweet visit. Stop by if you get a chance!!

We wanted to show the kid Caddo lake so we drove from Dallas to do a tour with Captain Ron…read more Ron is a down home friendly guy who obviously loves people, his job, and Caddo lake. During the 90 minute boat tour, he was enthusiastic and passionate about the lake. He really seemed to enjoy sharing his immense knowledge the lake, both real and legend. I learned a lot and he made the tour very interesting. The day we went it was a bit chilly and overcast. It had just rained so the lake water was muddy, and therefore we did not see much wildlife, just a busy beaver and some blue herons. You can go during the summer when the water is clearer and see turtles and dragon flies. During the summer, the climate is much hotter and humid and there is little air flow on the lake, so be prepared to sweat. Cool and overcast actually was preferable IMO. The wife and I had toured the lake about a decade ago and we left from the northern part of the lake. Our opinion is that despite the fact that Captain Ron did a great job, the northern part of the lake is more interesting than the southern part where Captain Ron is now located.

Had the best experience on the water today. Did a late afternoon tour w/ Captain Ron. Very sweet…read moreguy...full of fun lil facts, stops to admire birds, explain the scenery...just an all around great experience. So glad we booked this. Do yourself a favor...book the experience!! When back in town...will definitely shoot for a full moon tour!!!

There's only three national parks in Louisiana, and this is the only one that's outside of Greater…read moreNew Orleans. We had no idea what to expect when we pulled up here, but we're so glad we stopped. The two plantations that composed this park are among the most intact Creole cotton plantations in existence, and the park does an excellent job of telling the story. I recommend that every start at the little pavilion near the parking lot and watch the video; it provides excellent context. The rangers there were ready and eager to answer questions, and the whole experience reminds me that we really do have some amazing historic sites in our country.

The park is beautiful and the houses are amazing, if you like historical structures. A main…read moreplantation house, the overseer's house, and several workers houses make for an enjoyable hour or so of wandering. The tour of the main house is guided only, and the furnishings are not what you would expect, seeing that the family lived in the house until this century. It is still decorated in the sixties style. As with most things in the south that are located outside, stay cool in the summer. We went in December and it was comfortable, I would guess that August would not be as much fun.

Going back to places we visited during our Natchitoches trip, I forgot about reviewing this…read morehistoric site. This wasn't really planned, but after our boat tour, we decided to check it out since it was recommended during the boat tour. I'm always pretty interested to check out Historic sites. We decided to ride our scooters over and they were nice enough to let us store them inside, since they folded up. There were both indoor and outdoor exhibits. We decided to walk outside first and since it was 4th Of July, it was pretty bare. The outdoors was nice and woodsy. It was a hot day, so we went back inside pretty quick. On the inside exhibit, there was more to read and learn about, so we took the time to do that. Restrooms were available inside as well. The staff that was there answered questions and gave us a bunch more information about the area and festivities that we did not already know about. If you get a chance please visit them, when you are in Natchitoches. A lot of history!

A fine historic site that showcases the earliest French history in Louisiana! The site is in two…read moreparts: the museum and the reconstructed Fort St. Jean Baptiste. Both are excellent! The staff are friendly and helpful. No one was really around to explain anything in the fort, however. I had to rely on an interpretative booklet they loan out inside the museum but it doesn't always answer all questions. This is the only reason I'm giving 4 stars and not 5. But otherwise, pretty fantastic! This easily should be a first stop when visiting Natchitoches. It gives a bit of foundation and explanation for visiting the rest of the city.

Great town. Locals are nice. The best food and shops. Love the river tour or lake. Learned about…read morenew French sauce I don't remember the name. It had cheesy dip with mud bugs in it. Sorry I'm from Texas. All we have is Steak and Whataburger

First time coming here for business, it comes off as an interesting small town. Old downtown is by…read morethe river and it's nicely curated. Dining and hotel options are limited but would be fun to come for a quick getaway.

The Cane River National Heritage Area is a United States Heritage park area in my beautiful home…read morestate of Louisiana, the wonderful place of my birth, the fun place of my youth. This lovely little park is located in downtown Natchitoches, a beautiful old small historic town, it's really beautiful & great for a day trip or family picnic as it's small riverfront offers "little Mississippi River" like boat rides. It's just a very cool little area kinda like right out of "Gone with the Wind" the movie. It's located in a really gorgeous historic plantation-home type area of northern Louisiana that features really cool creole architecture, and you know I got a thing for history & architecture, so this is one of my favorite places on earth ;) Cane River National Heritage Area is roughly around 116,000 acres. It begins just south of Natchitoches and extends south & west for about 35 miles along cane river lake & I49 to Monette's Ferry. It's a great area for photo ops, you will also find lots of local fresh seafood, all kinds of tasty local cajun culinary treats dotted throughout the area & tons of places to go fishing & exploring. Something for everyone. A great place to spend a romantic or girls weekend at a lovely local historic B&B. It is very hard to chose as you will find, one is more gorgeous than the next. If you love antiquing this area is fantastic for vintage finds, it will surely keep you busy & entertained. Founded way back in 1714, it is the oldest community in the territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase. Wonderfully preserved, a beautiful must see bucket list worthy historic place in my home state of Louisiana. I hope you visit soon & love it as much as I do. Highly recommend.

Beautiful area! You can tell they take pride in this town. Very clean and well maintainedread more

This house and the Biedenharn history is way too cool!! They were pioneers in bottling Coca-Cola…read more We had a guided tour of the beautiful house, enjoyed the Bible Museum and the information about the history of the bottles. 100/100 recommend.

Overall, the tour was pretty drab. While it's interesting to see how one of the heirs lived, it's…read morevery sad that they have to charge so much for you to see it, walk through, and leave. The informational bits were very hard to understand at times. The gardens were definitely pretty, but I surely think Coca Cola could definitely put a little more into this piece of history.