We didn’t spend long in Louisiana, but we did have a few stops along the way that I thought were worth sharing with you all.  We highly recommend all these road trip attractions if you are ever in Louisiana.

Drive thru daiquiri bar

The drive thru Daiquiri shop experience!

I knew we had to go to a drive thru daiquiri bar as soon as I found out they existed.  It sounded so wrong, but so right as well, or at least yummy.  They are allowed to serve you daiquiris at a drive thru as long as the lid is taped down…. because if the lid is taped down then it’s not like you are going to drink it straight away.  Not!

We actually started seeing daiquiri shops all over the place as soon as we entered the state which seemed weird as I have never seen them anywhere else.  They are not all drive thru, so we didn’t stop until we found one with a drive thru.  We wanted the drive thru daiquiri experience.  They are popular.  The next drive thru one we saw after we stopped at ours actually had a massive long line of cars waiting in the middle of the day!

Drive thru menu!

I was shocked by the menu.  The daiquiris come in all flavours and sizes – including gallons!  That is nearly 3.8 litres of cocktail that can be handed over to the driver of a vehicle.  On Sundays, you can get one for only $20!

It was delicious.  I only bought a medium and I was quite light headed by the end. If you like to stop at road trip attractions for the novelty value, or if you love daiquiris, definitely find a drive thru daiquiri shop in Louisiana!

Baton Rouge

We couldn’t go all the way to New Orleans and not visit the capital of Louisiana.  Especially as I have a lifetime goal of visiting every state capitol in the US.

Louisiana State Capitol building – photo taken by S!

Baton Rouge is only about an hour from New Orleans.  We drove here as a detour on our way to Jackson.  We were glad we did.  It seems like a nice, pleasant city.  We ended up having a good walk around after going in the wrong direction when we tried to walk between the old and the new state capitol buildings.  Like just about everywhere we seem to go on this trip, downtown was quite dead and lacking any real colour or life.  It was full of dull looking office buildings, many of which seemed empty.

Old State Capitol Building and Baton Rouge

The old Louisiana State Capitol is old and grand looking.  Our guidebook described it as a pink palace.  I’m not sure I would, but thanks to this description, I did recognise it straight away!

The new Louisiana State Capitol is tall and grand at 34 storeys high. I read that some people think it is ugly, but I like it.  It was built during the Great Depression in only 14 months.  We had a look around which is a bargain at $0.  We saw the government chambers and went to the look out on the 27th floor.  There are great views from here over Baton Rouge and the Mississippi.  It is well worth coming here if you find yourself in Baton Rouge.

Louisiana State Capitol building

Views from the Louisiana State Capitol building

You can read more about our time in Baton Rouge in a typical day on our Deep South Road Trip.

Plantations

There are many plantations you can visit in Louisiana, particularly between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.  We were weighing up going to the Laura plantation and Oak Alley.  We would have preferred Laura, as the tours sounded fascinating, but I couldn’t see the kids staying quiet through a 1.5 hour tour, so we thought Oak Alley could be the way to go.  However, $40 for a house tour seemed like too much money for us on our budget as we aren’t particularly interested in seeing through the house anyway.  For these reasons, we decided to give a plantation a miss, although we did go to one in Charleston.  If you have the money and the inclination, this could also be a great Louisiana road trip attraction.

We then drove onto Jackson, Mississippi! Read more about the best parts of our Deep South road trip!

So what do you think about drive thru daiquiri shops?  A great idea? Or absolutely crazy?!