I was talking with Tien before going to New Orleans and he said that he and Shannan had gone on a Louisiana swamp tour when they were down there and had a really great time. You can see from his photographs that they saw a lot of alligators on their tour and were having a good time, so I signed up.
Tien recommended the small, high-speed air boat. Listening to him as much as I normally do, I went ahead and booked the slow, covered, 40-person boat. Actually, it wasn’t because I don’t take his advice, but because the slow boat was $30 less. I also went for the option where the tour sent someone to the hotel to pick me up, so that cost a little more than Tien paid. When I got out to the swamp, it turned out there was a mixup with scheduling and I got upgraded to the high-speed air boat for free.
I don’t think that this is a bad tour to go on, but I didn’t enjoy it that much. It was neat to see the bayou, the swamp, the marshlands, whatever you want to call it, but the night before the morning tour was a horrible storm. Thunder and lightening so loud and bright that it woke us up at the hotel. What this did was drive away a lot of the birds and wildlife, raise the waterline and bring a lot of salt water into the area. Unfortunately, we only saw a few birds and the eyes of two alligators as they swam away from us. Plus, it was freezing. I brought a light jacket with me, but most of the time in my head I was just thinking “OMG! It’s so cold! Let’s go back to the dock already! There’s nothing out here!” After 15 minutes we kind of got the idea that there was nothing more to see.. but then we had 1 hour and 45 minutes left of the tour.
Our tour guide was a local guy.. maybe about 25 years old.. who had obviously grown up on the bayou and told a lot of stories of life there. He spent a lot of time telling us how redneck and coonass he was.
I would still recommend the tour because I personally know people that have been on it and had a great time. Just hope for good weather just before the tour and for sun during the tour.
