8 Quirkiest Louisiana Towns To Visit In 2025

Louisiana’s culture is unlike any other. It is the only state in the US with parishes instead of counties, largely reflecting its French and Spanish colonial history. Throughout these parishes and small towns, travelers will find all kinds of surprising landmarks and cultural celebrations. In places like New Iberia, travelers can tour the Tabasco plant, while towns like Breaux Bridge are filled with crawfish restaurants. If you stop by Crowley in October, you might stumble upon the International Rice Festival! If you are looking to explore Louisiana like never before in 2025, these eight quirky towns will leave you with a whole new perspective of the Pelican State.

New Iberia

New Iberia is the perfect basecamp for travelers who love Tabasco. Just a 15-minute drive from the Tabasco factory, visitors can tour the facility and learn about its history and how the iconic sauce is made. After the tour, they can enjoy a spicy, authentic Cajun meal at TABASCO Restaurant 1868. For fresh fruit or seasonal produce, stop by Eddie Romero’s Fruit Orchard, which cultivates tomatoes, blueberries, and blackberries, among other seasonal products.

New Iberia also recognizes its agricultural heritage through the Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival, which highlights the historical importance of sugar cane through a parade, carnival, a car show, Cajun and Zydeco music, and sugar cooking competitions.

Abita Springs

Lying in the heart of Abita Springs, along Highway 36, travelers will find a truly bizarre attraction: The Abita Mystery House. In 1993, the Mystery House Founder, John Preble, converted an old gas station, barn, and cottage into a roadside attraction that would truly leave a mark. Visitors will find a hodgepodge of 50,000 objects throughout this attraction, including arcade games, bottle caps, and old phones. Visitors can continue their quirky adventure at the Insta-Gator Ranch, where they can enjoy an interactive alligator tour, which includes feeding and petting the gators! In the evening, unwind at the Abita Brew Pub, which has live music on weekend evenings and bingo every Tuesday.

Lake Charles

Known as the "Festival Capital of Louisiana," Lake Charles always seems to be celebrating something. Lovers of Cajun culture should visit the town on July 19th, during the annual Cajun Music and Food Festival, which celebrates dishes like shrimp etouffee, jambalaya, and gumbo, complemented by music all day long. A few days later, on July 25th and 26th, the Marshland Festival will take place, which showcases the music of some of the best Southwestern Louisiana artists. Since 2018, the town has also hosted the Smoke & Barrel festival, which celebrates bourbon, barbecue, and whiskey through liquor tastings and some of the region’s top pitmasters.

Houma

Located in Louisiana’s Bayou Country, Houma is surrounded by approximately 2,500 square miles of wetlands and swamps. Travelers wanting to explore these mysterious ecosystems can do so via a tour with Annie Miller's Son's Swamp & Marsh Tours, which takes passengers through the canals and bayous to see alligators, snakes, nutria, egrets, herons, and owls. There are several places around town where you can appreciate live Cajun music, as well.

Each Friday evening, for example, local musicians perform at the Downtown Houma Courthouse Square Bandstand. All you have to do is bring a lawn chair and a drink! If you want to celebrate the Fourth of July with a true bang this year, consider attending Houma’s Good Earth 4th of July Festival, featuring music, food, drinks, and a fireworks show to conclude the night.

Grand Isle

Grand Isle is famous for its fishing and birding scene, earning it recognition as a “Sportsman’s Paradise.” With over 10 fishing charter companies in town, arranging an excursion is easy. One highly rated option is Geaux Fishing Charters, which offers a variety of trips, including offshore, inshore, jetty, and spearfishing charters. There are also several public fishing piers if you prefer to stay onshore. Grand Isle Fishing Pier is a recently opened pier that uses high-quality lights to attract a variety of fish species. For an afternoon of birdwatching, head over to the Lafitte Woods Nature Preserve, where the live oaks and hackberries attract warblers, flycatchers, vireos, and tanagers, among many other bird species.

Breaux Bridge

Dubbed the “Crawfish Capital of the World,” travelers will have plenty of opportunities to try crawfish in Breaux Bridge. Crazy Bout Crawfish is a great place to sample crawfish dishes, serving crawfish salad, crawfish etouffee, crawfish tails, and more.

For good old-fashioned soul food, K-B's Boiling Shack is another beloved option in town, serving classics like shrimp and grits, mac n cheese, and fried cabbage. If you have been wanting to learn how to Cajun two-step, consider signing up for the Zydeco Breakfast at Buck and Johnny’s, which features live Zydeco music and dancing from 8 am until 11:30 am each Saturday.

Crowley

If you love rice, you will love visiting Crowley in October. From October 16th to 19th this year, the town will host its annual International Rice Festival, which is one of the oldest agricultural festivals in the state. Activities throughout the weekend include a rice-eating contest, a frog derby, a fiddle and accordion contest, a classic car show, and live music. Travelers can experience Crowley’s performing arts scene, meanwhile, at the Rice Theatre, which was constructed in the 1940s, continuing to host community events, concerts, and theatrical performances today. The Grand Opera House of the South is another beloved venue in town, constructed in 1901 and holding performances like dance recitals and music tributes.

Natchitoches

While many Louisianans recognize Natchitoches for its rich history, fewer may be familiar with Dark Woods Adventure Park. This amusement park offers several family-friendly attractions, including the Lost Treasure Mining Company, where visitors can pan for crystals, gems, and fossils, and Buccaneer Bayou Mini Golf, a 19-hole pirate-themed course.

After gem mining and mini golfing with your family, visit Natchitoches’ historic district, where you can arrange a horse-drawn carriage ride with Cane River Carriage Company. At the end of the year, travelers can ring in the Christmas season at the renowned Natchitoches Christmas Festival of Lights, which features more than 300,000 twinkling lights, 100 set pieces, and special events like Cookies with Santa and a Christmas Tour of Homes.

Louisiana as a whole is a pretty unique state. Nowhere else will you find jazz music and Mardi Gras celebrations quite like you do here! However, if you venture beyond the state’s bustling cities, you will discover some of the quirkiest landmarks and celebrations imaginable. The Abita Mystery House and the bayou tours in Houma are just a couple of examples of this eccentricity. So if you think you have seen all that Louisiana has to offer, visit these towns for yourself in 2025—they might prove you wrong!