The Top Three Destinations In and Around Our New Orleans Campground

Category: Local Attractions Louisiana

When you’re camping in New Orleans at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park, you may want to take some time away from your tent or cabin and visit some of the great family attractions in and around the Big Easy.

Here are our top three family attractions outside the campground:

1. The Audubon Nature Institute. Three — count ‘em! — wildlife facilities make up the institute, a zoo, an aquarium and an insect-arium, as well as several parks, an IMAX theater and a cafe. There are more than 1,300 animals live at the zoo, including sea lions, a Komodo dragon, white Bengal tigers and a family of white alligators (extremely rare). Your young ones will really enjoy taking a tour on the zoo’s Swamp Train. Your older “little ones” will get a real kick out of taking a high-tech simulated safari ride. Right next to the French Quarter is the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas, where stingrays, sharks, penguins and other marine fish creatures — including the famous sea otters Buck and Emma — await. There’s also a wonderful 400,000-gallon Gulf of Mexico exhibit! You’ve no doubt see them while camping in New Orleans; and now you can go to the Audubon Insect-arium to identify them! This zoo showcasing the many-footed creatures of the insect family is located in the U.S. Custom House on Canal Street. It’s the largest museum devoted to insects — the largest group of living creatures on the planet. You can “shrink” down to the size of a bug, walk through a Louisiana swamp and be a part of an awards show for bugs.
2. Who doesn’t love a parade? If you and your family do, then leave our New Orleans campground and visit Mardi Gras World. An enormous warehouse full of parade props, costumes and giant floats, you and your family will see a float in the form of a 140-foot sea monster and a 240-foot riverboat. You’ll be able to watch fine craftsmen work on parade floats for next’s year’s Mardi Gras parade. Your children will get a big kick out of going through large costume trunks and donning fantastic carnival clothes.
3. Get out of the forest at your New Orleans campground and into the swamp! New Orleans’ Westwego Swamp Adventures offers tours of Louisiana’s cypress-laden wetlands. You’ll see owls, turtles and egrets. You’ll also get a chance to see alligators up close and personal — tour guides lure the creatures to your boat with morsels of chicken. (We’re certain your children will heed your admonishment to keep their hands inside the boat once they get a load of those jaws!)

The attraction of visiting the campgrounds of New Orleans extend past the amenities of Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park to the lure of the world famous NOLA.