St. Joseph Plantation Tour

Very much enjoyed!! Our tour guides were great. Mr. Mike was wonderful and very informative!! We had great tour and would definitely recommend!

I had the pleasure of visiting St. Joseph Plantation today and was greeted by a lovely lady with silver hair and blue eyes. Her name was Sylvia. We walked among the house while she gave the very interesting stories of the families that lived there. Her stories included the history of those who were born there, lived there, and died there. Most interesting was the "morning" culture at the time. The house was draped in black and even though they were mostly Roman Catholic, they were very superstitious. Without funeral homes, it was the family who prepared one after death for burial and the "wake" was held in the house. I highly recommend a visit to St. Joseph Plantation and get the rest of the story for yourself. Evelyn Carbone

The tour was great! Greg was very knowledgeable. The house was beautiful. We hope to be able to visit again.

Made a last minute decision to visit the plantation because we wanted to learn more about sugarcane production (after seeing sugarcane fields EVERYWHERE on our drive!) Pulled into the gift shop and bought tickets for the St. Joseph tour. Ended up just being my husband and I with the guide (Mike). He was great! We learned a lot about sugarcane production (in the past and currently). Also, learned a lot about the plantation and the history of the house itself. Fully recommend, especially if you are looking for smaller tour sizes and an authentic tour.

It was a great tour, very detailed, definitely worth it.

It is really worthy a visit. Our guide Richard was really helpful and gave us so much information about the history of the house and the people who inhabited it in the past. Strongly recommend it.

Robert was very informative. It is a beautiful property. Really enjoyed the short film in the beginning to explain the sugar production process. Would liked to have seen the slave quarters too

House was beautiful and excellently kept! Mike O. was our tour guide and he was awesome, stayed after the tour to take to us about things we had questions about!

My sisters and I went to both the St. Josephs and Felicity tours and had a wonderful time! Both guides Robert (St Josephs) and Mike (Felicity) were absolutely great! They were very thorough in the knowledge of both houses, friendly and patient with our questions. We have been on many plantation tours and this by far was the best we have done! If you are interested in the history of the southern plantations, then you have to go to St Josephs Plantation. You will enjoy it and learn a lot.

I visited St. Joseph Plantation with my husband, and we both enjoyed it. Mike O. did a great job as our guide. I deducted a star because I did not like this particular house as much as some of the other plantations I have visited. It is designed in the Creole style, which is somewhat different than what most people think of when they picture a plantation. It's just not my favorite type of architecture. But it is in Louisiana, so it's not a huge surprise. I would visit again and I'm glad I went. More than anything, I'm glad this house has survived for so long and we can learn from its history.

Enjoyed the stories and additional information the docent shared. It was quiet and serene the day we were there. Amazing that they still have so many original buildings on the property. Definitely worth visiting.

Robert P. was a great tour guide!! Very knowledgeable and friendly. I learned a great deal about the plantation and the families that lived there.

This is my 4th tour of ST. Joseph. Mrs. Sylvia Zeringue was the tour guide. She is a retired teacher. She did an excellent job. Gave family stories. This makes this tour so special to hear the stories. It is not a typical plantation tour. In October there is a mourning tour which tells how people that lived on plantation how they mourned when a love one passed away. Tour takes about an hour. Highly recommended it

We did the Mourning Tour with Mr. Greg and it was so much fun. Definitely recommend if you are into the paranormal and even just the history of the plantation. The admission was worth it, you get to ghost hunt at the end. The length of the visit was perfect. Great atmosphere. The crowd size for the time we went was the perfect size, it was just my husband and my self along with one other couple and the tour guide.

Mike was a wonderful tour guide. He had great stories about the history of the plantation and the families that lived there. It’s a nice day trip from New Orleans to enjoy the countryside.

Enjoyed this tour with Mike O. He shared so many details and knowledge about the plantation and the history including the Sugar Cane process and industry. We enjoyed it and would recommend.

Definitely a pleasure of ours to tour St Joseph (Felicity is next on our list). Beautiful grounds and a wonderful history made this a unique tour. Staff were a pleasure and very knowledgeable. It was much more than we expected.

Our docent, Seth, was very knowledgeable and an excellent guide for both, St. Joseph and Felicity, Plantation homes. His background as a Louisiana native and a scholar of history increased our enjoyment.

This was the second time I have visited the property and have loved it both times. I believe this is such a gem. We were the only ones in our tour group and had plenty of time to ask questions with our friendly and knowledgeable guide. The previous time I was there, it was the same and our guide was a family member who remembered visits to property when her family lived there in the past. I would highly recommend St. Joseph's and Felicity.

The tour was good, got a lot of information. One of the family member was the gids. Telling about her family. Also films and series, just location plantage to film there. It's sad that slavery and everything really happened until 1977.

My husband and I have visited most of the New Orleans plantations, having traveled to NOLA several times over the years. This was our first time to St. Joseph. We took my parents with us, as this was their first visit to New Orleans. We enjoyed the video about the process of farming sugar cane; my parents are farmers. And, we very much enjoyed the tour by a native of the area. The tour group was small; it was just us four. We enjoyed the pace and the knowledge of the guide, and we appreciated that this plantation is still working and owned entirely by family members. We watched a movie later that evening that had been partially filmed there. While St. Joseph is less grand, the experience was very personal and the information better than that shared by one of the very large ones nearby.

I had to reschedule my visit. The staff was very friendly and made the change without a problem. Each plantation along River Road has a unique story. St. Joseph's was different because the planation had never gone into complete disrepair like most and the sugar plantation was still family run. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and thorough. The weather beautiful. On the negative side, I felt like they glossed over the harshness of slavery and the video they make you watch at the beginning is part How it Works, part self-promotion.

My husband and I took the tour of the house and grounds on the first Saturday of their Mourning tours. It was very interesting and our guide was thorough, kind and very informative. I highly recommend this tour over the more commercialized ones on the river road. It is more personal and relaxed, definitely less crowded.

Really enjoyed the plantation tour! Loved the house and grounds. Great tour hosts. Very interesting sugar cane information

St.Joseph and Felicity tour was excellent!! Miss Sylvia was our docent and was so informative. Someone who loves her job!! This was very much worth the stop.

The St. Joseph Plantation was my least favorite of all the plantations I visited. I visited four. It was okay, but not great. I would only recommend if you went to most of the others. I think it’s popular because of all the filming done here. It seemed to be a hodgepodge of rooms. Rooms were dedicated to more themes, not necessarily true to the plantation or any particular time period. For example, the dining room is not located in the correct room. I think it would be better if they would pick a theme or time period and go with it.

The tour guide lacked personality and historical knowledge. She didn’t introduce herself to us or engage in any way that would let us know she was glad we were there. She didn’t know much about the historical significance of the home, the time period or the people who’d lived there. We would’ve been better off doing a self guided tour just to look at the rooms because that basically all we did. The guide stood in the rooms with us while we looked around.

This was such an amazing experience. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable of everything and answered all of our questions. I recommend this to everyone and it’s reasonably priced

We had a wonderful experience! The house and Plantation are beautiful, and Sylvia, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. I hope to return and would encourage anyone to visit.

Jake, our tour guide was knowledgeable, humorous, and fielded our questions/ comments during the tour. The house is lovely- a must see. I understand that Hurricane Ida did much damage, but much effort has gone into repairs. Suggest touring on a nice day

This was our favorite plantation tour on the way to New Orleans! The property is gorgeous and our tour guide, a former history teacher, is extremely knowledgeable and pleasant. If you love these beautiful houses and their history be sure to ask your guide to visit 'Felicite', their sister plantation house. Totally worth your time and the most affordable plantation visits too!

When we visit Biloxi, Mississippi, my husband and I take side trips to nearby Louisana. Over the years, this has allowed us to see several of the plantations along the River Road. They are unique and offer valuable history lessons. I'm not sure how we missed St. Joseph Plantation before; however, we were very pleased we connected this trip because this was something very special. Thankfully, some of these River Road homes have been saved by local patrons of local history, architecture, or both. Some are still home to the owners who allow tours to be conducted. What makes St. Joseph Plantation a rare and captivating find is the very strong family connection to the property, and it is still a working farm. The story of the family and their history was interesting but made fascinating by the tour guide, Sylvia. In her hands, the tour is a rich gumbo of family memories, family artifacts, and photos/paintings of family members. There was also a far more relaxed vibe to this tour. You could touch many artifacts; there may have been a caution about picture taking, but I don't recall hearing one. This sort of visitor engagement and the farm-to-table lesson makes it a wonderful family tour, a tour we plan on taking again. NOTE: I see some negative reviews, specifically that the St. Joseph tour didn't focus on the African American experience as much as the reviewers wished. Having toured Oak Alley, Nottoway, Houmas, Destrehan, Laura, and the Whitney, each has its own personality and its own story to tell. The Whitney would have the most information about enslaved people, and I believe Nottoway is also a B&B where former slave quarters can be reserved. No question, the restored plantation properties provide history lessons about the culture of antebellum Lousiana, and no question, slavery is part of it, but not all of it. The end of the Civil War isn't the end of the story. Do some research before deciding where you will visit - but visit. Don't limit yourself to a single property if you can help it. Our patronage is what will keep these historical treasures open.

Very nice relaxing tour with very knowledgeable guides. not as big or opulent ad others but we'll worth the vist, never felt rushed and you are allowed to take pictures inside

Our host was most welcoming and took her time to answer questions and give us as much history as the time would allow. The admission was fair for the attention and time allowed on the grounds for viewing and pictures. Will recommend to friends and family and look forward to Felicity planataion when it opens.

I was very disheartened by this tour. I made the assumption that it would focus on slavery and the atrocities that occurred on plantations, however, it focused on the house and the plantation family and their wealth. Barely a mention of slaves. There were slave cabins on the property, and they weren’t even part of the tour, we were told at the end that we could go look at them if we wanted. I thought this would be an educational tour but it felt like propaganda. I regretted supporting the plantation with our entrance fee.

Kat, our tour guide and descendent of former owners, was extremely informative about the home, land, enslaved persons, and sugar industry.

It is a beautiful piece of land, but we decided against going inside as it was expensive and we planned on touring a couple of other plantations that day as well. The closer to the main house offered a better situation, but going out past the filming vans was severely disappointing. The buildings were clearly abandoned, with collapsing floors and trash everywhere. I don't know what the positive reviews were describing, but these structures were hazardous to say the least. I have several photos that I will add once they have been developed. I am not trying to deter people from visiting or bash the groundskeepers, but I was so disappointed. A lovely gift shop with very friendly people, but once we left the house there was nothing worth an $8 ticket to tour. There was one historical sign with information that we could find anywhere on the exterior grounds, cited from Wikipedia. Maybe if we had been willing to shell the expensive fare for an interior tour I would have given it a better review, but even a partial ticket should have warranted a proper tour.

This was our favorite plantation. Love that we could take pictures inside. Love the history. Love that family still lives on the property. House was decorated in mourning, due to covid-19 there were no actors for the reenactment that happens in October through November 3rd. We will visit again when we can see them. Awesome for people of all ages.

Very interesting tour that laid out the history of sugar cane farming during the 1800s and beyond. The tour guide was excellent and very informative!!

The nice woman kat gave us an amazing tour! We went to oak alley first and then decided to stop and look and the women were so sweet we decided to take this one as well completely different then oak alley this is about how a family turned their home into a beautiful tour about history and family story’s and it was a 10/10!

The tour of the house was very interesting on learning some facts about plantation life that I didn’t know. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and loved being ask questions. The house was in very good shape and there were several out buildings that you could tour on your own.

Tour guide was so awesome and so, so knowledgeable. It is so very different than many other plantation tours - it is a MUST SEE. If you go to any of the New Orleans Plantations, you have to make it to the St. Joseph Plantation, even if your visit only has time for one! It is well worth the drive and you will not be disappointed. The way this Plantation "remains in the family" until this day, is so very special.