Baton Rouge Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. Located on the Mississippi River, north of New Orleans, Baton Rouge Louisiana exemplifies the best of Louisiana"s diverse culture. Baton Rouge is a thriving city, home to LSU and Southern University; it’s also a haven for numerous businesses and industrial facilities.

The climate is semi-tropical in Baton Rouge, so it’s a great place to enjoy outdoor activities like boating, golf and tennis. Like its sister city, New Orleans, you can also find many jazz musicians and places to listen to some fantastic blues. There are even a few casinos like the Belle of the Baton Rouge, to try your hand at black jack. And no Baton Rouge vacation would be complete without sampling a local swamp tour or visiting the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center to get a glimpse of the crocodiles Louisiana is famous for. During the year there are many events like the Mardi Gras. If you can"t make it to New Orleans for this famous party, you can find a good show in Baton Rouge as well.

One thing you will remember from your Baton Rouge vacation is the abundance of magnolias, especially in the spring. The state flower, magnolia trees are in abundance here and at the nearby plantation homes. Nothing quite says the south like stretching out at a café or on a porch with a mint Julep in hand and smelling the sweet smell of the beautiful white magnolias flowers in Baton Rouge Louisiana.

You can sample the grandeur of these lovely southern trees when you travel Baton Rouge by visiting the Louisiana plantation homes along River Road or in the small town north called St Francisville. Houmas House on River Road is a must-see on the plantation tour list, where movies were filmed on this spectacular plantation estate. There are even some plantation homes that operate as bed and breakfast hotels. One of the great things-to-do on a Louisiana vacation is to stay overnight in a plantation like Myrtle’s, which is rumored to be haunted!

The other smell that will thrill and delight you in this jewel of the south called Baton Rouge Louisiana (or translated from French “the red stick”), is the smell of Cajun and Creole cooking. A mixture of French and Spanish cuisines, with the Cajun being a spicier and heartier version of the latter, this unbelievably delicious food is a mixture of local ingredients like crab, river shrimp, oysters, crawfish, freshwater and saltwater fish, lake shrimp, beans of all kinds, homemade sausages, tomatoes, okra, yams, pecans, as well as oranges and wines, liqueurs and brandy.

A must on your Baton Rouge vacation is to sample this food at one of the many fine Baton Rouge Restaurants, where you can find some of the best dining in the country. Juban’s is the place for great Creole dishes, where you will find such interesting fare like crab and boursin cheesecake, seafood mirliton cassoulet, creole duck, and crabmeat-topped veal medallions. Boutin’s is a great place to sample Cajun fare, and look at great views of the bayou while listening to live Cajun music. You can also try Copeland’s, another of the Baton Rouge restaurants that offers both flavors of Cajun and Creole cuisine like shrimp etouffee, hickory-grilled redfish, fried catfish Acadiana with shrimp-butter sauce, and crawfish fettuccine.

Other Baton Rouge restaurants that make southern cuisine worth trying are Phil Brady’s, the oldest blues bar in Baton Rouge, where you can munch on barbeque and po-boys, or the southern style Cat House Cafe & Oyster Bar.

There is also plenty of shopping to be found when you travel Baton Rouge hotspots. The Mall of Cortana has the traditional shops found in every mall across the country or you can try the more upscale Mall of Louisiana which also houses a movie theatre.

For other fun things to do when you travel Baton Rouge, try a cooking class at the Magnolia Mound Plantation where guides in period costumes will show you around the groundsn and give you a history breakdown of Lousiana, you can also visit the Greater King David Baptist Church on a Sunday and listen to Gospel music, enjoy the nightlife on the historic 3rd Street, or take a tour of the historic Governor’s mansion and the old state capitol building. There are even a few local wineries outside Baton Rouge that offer free wine tasting and wine festivals at different times of the year. Since Baton Rouge is on the Mississippi you can take a river cruise and enjoy the spledor of the south as you glide in luxury.

Whatever your taste, your Baton Rouge vacation is sure to leave you memories of a beautiful southern day and delicious southern food that will keep calling you to come back again and again.