Honey Island Swamp Tours

On the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Pearl River, Louisiana, along the lower Pearl River watershed. 35 miles north of New Orleans, about 40 minutes in good traffic via I-10 east across the Twin Span and then I-59 north to Exit 5A.

Not currently. We used to run a small-boat tour on Honey Island, but it's no longer offered. Our swamp tours today run the south-shore bayous around the Barataria Preserve -- real Mississippi Delta wetlands with cypress, Spanish moss, and wild alligators, 25 to 40 minutes from the French Quarter, with hotel pickup available on most boats.

It's considered one of the least-altered river swamps in America. Most New Orleans swamp tours go to the south shore around Jean Lafitte and Houma, where the swamps are also beautiful but more accessible and more heavily toured. Honey Island is denser, wilder, and a different direction from the city -- about the same drive time from New Orleans, just to the north.

Because bees once lived on an island at the swamp's edge. Locals called it Honey Island, and the name stuck. Today the name covers the whole 250 square miles of swamp surrounding it. Not a metaphor, just a literal swamp named after literal bees.

Yes. Louisiana's swamps are home to alligators year-round, and they're most active March through October. Our airboat and pontoon tours run through real alligator habitat in the Barataria wetlands, and most trips spot gators in the water -- along with herons, turtles, and the occasional wild boar.