What to See in Louisiana, United States

The best things to do in Louisiana bring together river landscapes, wetlands, historic cities, and a culture shaped by French, African, Spanish, Native American, and other influences. From Baton Rouge and New Orleans to the forests and prairies farther north, Louisiana is a state where the history of the land and the history of its people are closely connected. Neywo offers free audio guides for 3 cities in Louisiana, with 150 narrated places in total across 8 walking tours.

What to see and do in Louisiana

Explore the Mississippi River and the Gulf coast

Water is the starting point for understanding Louisiana. The Mississippi River carried sediment southward, creating broad marshes, swamps, and the enormous delta at its mouth. The river marks much of the state’s eastern boundary, while the Gulf of Mexico extends along its southern coast.

This meeting of river and sea helped shape Louisiana as a place of movement, settlement, and exchange. Today, waterways still support agriculture, trade, and daily life. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway carries agricultural produce, petroleum products, building materials, and manufactured goods.

Discover Louisiana’s history and parishes

Indigenous groups lived in the region thousands of years before European arrival. Louisiana is also identified as a place of origin for Mound Builders culture during the Middle Archaic period.

France claimed the territory in 1682 and named it La Louisiane in honor of King Louis the Fourteenth. Spanish rule followed, before a brief French return and the sale of Louisiana to the United States in 1803. Louisiana later became the eighteenth state to enter the Union.

The state’s French heritage remains visible in its institutions. Louisiana is the only U.S. state divided into parishes rather than counties. Baton Rouge is the capital, while New Orleans is the largest city. To place the state in its wider context, you can also explore the United States destination guide.

Visit Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge is Louisiana’s capital and one of the cities covered by Neywo. Its narrated places include Louisiana State University, the USS Kidd, St. James Episcopal Church, and the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center.

The city offers a way to encounter several sides of Louisiana: its political role as the state capital, its educational institutions, its religious history, and its connection with the river and military heritage. The Baton Rouge city guide brings these places together in a walkable audio experience.

Spend time in New Orleans

New Orleans is Louisiana’s largest city and one of the state’s most important cultural centers. Neywo’s guide includes 90 narrated places, among them Saint Louis Cemetery, Saint Louis Cemetery No. 2, St. Louis Cathedral, and The Presbytere.

These sites reflect the city’s religious, architectural, and historical layers. New Orleans is also an ideal place to encounter the wider cultural traditions that developed in Louisiana, including Creole influences and the religious life associated with French, Spanish, African, Native American, Haitian, and other communities. Continue with the New Orleans guide to explore the city place by place.

Explore Covington

Covington provides another perspective on Louisiana. Its 19 narrated places include the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Veteran’s Monument, the GAR Monument in Covington, and the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati.

The city’s landmarks connect religious, civic, military, and railway history. For a closer look at these locations, use the Covington guide.

Learn about Creole, Cajun, and Isleño traditions

Louisiana’s identity comes from many communities rather than a single cultural tradition. Creole culture brings together French, African, Spanish, other European, and Native American influences. It developed through contact and adaptation across colonial and later Louisiana.

Cajun ancestors came mainly from west central France to New France. They later settled in the Atlantic provinces known as Acadia, and their descendants became part of Louisiana’s cultural fabric. The Isleños form another distinct cultural community in the state.

Louisiana is also home to eighteen Native American tribes, more than any other southern state. Some are federally recognized, while others are recognized by the state. Religious life has likewise taken many forms, from Native American spiritual traditions and Christian missions established under French and Spanish rule to Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo, which were introduced and continue to be practiced.

Even the name of the state reflects this layered history: Louisiane in French, Luisiana in Spanish, and Lwizyàn in Louisiana Creole.

Taste food shaped by land and water

Food in Louisiana is closely connected to the state’s rivers, wetlands, farms, and coast. Seafood is one of its principal agricultural products, and Louisiana is the world’s biggest producer of crawfish, supplying about 90 percent of the crawfish produced worldwide.

The state also produces cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Sugarcane and cotton were especially important during an earlier agricultural boom, though they were cultivated primarily by enslaved people from Africa.

These products tell the story of a landscape where wetlands, river country, and farmland meet. They also remain part of a wider economy built around waterways and trade.

See Louisiana’s forests, prairies, and wetlands

Louisiana’s natural landscapes include coastal marshes and swamps, the Mississippi delta, northern tallgrass prairies, longleaf pine forests, and wet savannas. Together, they support ibises, egrets, American green tree frogs, sturgeon, and paddlefish.

The state is more than half forested. Kisatchie National Forest, Louisiana’s only national forest, extends across central and northern Louisiana and includes flatwoods and longleaf pine forest.

Plant life is equally varied, including terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants. The natural environment is also fragile: southwestern prairie has lost more than 98 percent of its former extent. Louisiana’s humid subtropical climate brings long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters, but the state’s ecosystems continue to change under pressure.

Explore Louisiana with Neywo

Neywo has free audio guides for 3 cities in Louisiana, with 150 narrated places in total and 8 walking tours. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace. There is no group and no schedule: simply choose a city, walk between its landmarks, and listen when the next story begins.