This pairing puts two very different plantation experiences back to back on the same stretch of the Mississippi River. Oak Alley is built around its quarter-mile canopy of live oaks leading to a Greek Revival mansion, and the house tour focuses on the planter family who lived there. Whitney Plantation takes the opposite approach: it centers the enslaved people who worked the land, using first-person narratives, a memorial wall of names, and reconstructed cabins rather than a grand-house tour.
| Distance | 45 miles west of New Orleans |
|---|---|
| Travel time | 50 min each direction via I-310 and LA-18 |
| Getting there | Car required; no public transit to River Road plantations |
| Address | Start: 5099 LA-18, Edgard, LA 70049 (Whitney Plantation); End: 3645 LA-18, Vacherie, LA 70090 (Oak Alley) |
How to get there
- Rental car ($35–$60/day); reserve at MSY Airport
- Group day tour buses from New Orleans run by Gray Line ($60–$80/person; 504-569-1401)
Location
Start: 5099 LA-18, Edgard, LA 70049 (Whitney Plantation); End: 3645 LA-18, Vacherie, LA 70090 (Oak Alley)
29.9275, -90.7687 View on map
Highlights
- The Oak Alley canopy - 28 live oaks planted before the main house, forming the quarter-mile approach the plantation is named for
- Whitney Plantation's Wall of Honor - a granite memorial listing names of people enslaved on Whitney and nearby plantations
- Whitney's restored slave cabins - original and reconstructed structures used to walk through daily living conditions
- Oak Alley's Big House tour - the 1830s mansion interior, furnished to the antebellum period
- Antioch Baptist Church at Whitney - a historic church relocated onto the grounds as part of the exhibit route