Baton Rouge travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in Baton Rouge, planned over three days
Best time to visit Baton Rouge
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best season. Azaleas, peak crawfish and 65 to 85 degree weather, with April the best month.
Hot, humid and stormy, with the cheapest hotels. Outdoors is morning only and crawfish ends early July.
Game day season. October and November bring drier 60s and 70s and the best hiking, with late October a best month.
Mild winters and the best museum weather, plus Mardi Gras and the start of crawfish season in January.
What's on
- Baton Rouge Blues Festival mid-April
Among the oldest US blues festivals, free downtown over a weekend with dozens of acts across several stages.
- Ebb & Flow Festival April
The Arts Council's free riverfront weekend of music, art and food. Dates move each year, so check ebbandflowbr.org.
- Spanish Town Parade Saturday before Fat Tuesday, noon
Downtown's signature Mardi Gras parade, pink flamingos and satire, adults leaning.
- Mystic Krewe of Mutts after Mardi Gras
The dog parade that follows the main Mardi Gras parades.
- July 4 fireworks over the Mississippi July 4
Fireworks over the Mississippi downtown, best watched from the levee or the USS Kidd side.
- Greater Baton Rouge State Fair late Oct / Nov
Rides, livestock and fair food for about ten days around Halloween.
- Festival of Lights early December
Downtown's tree lighting night with music, lights and fireworks.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Baton Rouge
Tiger Stadium
A fall Saturday here is the trip itself, with tailgating, the band on Victory Hill and over 102,000 fans.
Mike the Tiger's Habitat
The only live tiger mascot on a US campus, in a big habitat by the stadium and free to visit.
LSU Museum of Natural Science
A free small museum in Foster Hall with a mastodon and habitat dioramas, easy to pair with the campus walk.
LSU AgCenter Dairy Store
Campus-made ice cream that makes an easy, cheap finish to a self-guided LSU walk.
Louisiana State Capitol
The tallest state capitol in the US, free to enter, with the best city view from its 27th floor deck.
Louisiana's Old State Capitol
A Gothic Revival castle on the river bluff with a stained glass dome and a strong immersive history show.
USS KIDD Veterans Museum
A WWII destroyer moored on the Mississippi that you tour from guns and bridge to berthing and galley.
Capitol Park Museum
The one museum that explains Louisiana whole, from Native peoples and slavery to swamp blues and Mardi Gras.
Where to stay in Baton Rouge
Downtown / Riverfront
first trip, festivals, no-car visitors
Walk to both capitols, the museum cluster, the Shaw Center and festival stages, the only truly walkable base.
LSU / South Gates / Lakeshore
game day, campus visits, families
Walk to Tiger Stadium, Mike the Tiger and the lakes in a collegiate, leafy setting, but supply books out first.
Mid City / Government Street and Perkins Road Overpass
food-led travellers, longer stays
Elsie's, BLDG 5 and Government Street bars and galleries on your doorstep, mostly rentals and you need a car.
Perkins Rowe / Bluebonnet / College Drive
business, shoppers, easy parking
Safe feeling chain corridor with free parking, practical with a car but with no real sense of place.
Think twice about
- North Baton Rouge
Scotlandville, Zion City and the Plank Road and Airline corridors are residential, far from the sights and short on hotels. Drive in for Southern University or Tony's Seafood rather than basing there.
- Gardere
The area around Gardere Lane and Burbank west of Nicholson is flagged for above average crime and is not a visitor base.
- Tigerland at night
The student bar strip south of campus sees robberies and fights on big nights. Use rideshare door to door.
- Unlit downtown side streets and isolated lots
Downtown is the recommended base, but at night use lit Third, Lafayette and Convention streets, garages, and rideshare after 10 p.m.
Best restaurants in Baton Rouge
Elsie's Plate & Pie
The city's defining restaurant, a pie shop and Louisiana kitchen with critical acclaim.
Zeeland Street
A tiny neighbourhood cafe, one of the country's best for breakfast, with a soul food leaning lunch.
Mansurs on the Boulevard
Creole fine dining since 1989, with charbroiled oysters and the city's deepest wine recognition.
Coffee Call
Beignet fingers and cafe au lait at a 50 year old institution open early to late.
The Chimes
The LSU rite of passage since 1983, with a huge Louisiana menu and one of the state's best beer lists.
Cocha
Globally inflected, vegetable and seafood forward small plates, the most modern cooking downtown.
Cecelia Creole Bistro
Polished Creole bistro cooking a block from Cocha, and part of downtown's best date night pair.
BLDG 5
Market hall dining under the overpass, built for grazing boards and group friendly dinners.
Outdoor things to do in Baton Rouge
Santa Maria Golf Course
The best public golf value in the parish, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. course around lakes and oaks.
Beaver Creek Golf Course
A secluded, wooded BREC flagship north of the city, often paired with Santa Maria for a golf weekend.
The University Club
The finest course in the area and home to LSU golf, but you need a member host or reciprocal access.
Carter Plantation
A David Toms course through cypress and live oak on a historic plantation site, worth the drive.
The Bluffs on Thompson Creek
An Arnold Palmer course above Thompson Creek that is hillier and more scenic than most Louisiana golf.
Copper Mill
A solid, well-kept semi-private option closer in than the day trip courses.
LSU Golf Course
Cheap and convenient campus golf, a step below Santa Maria on conditioning and busy with students.
Last Wilderness Swamp Tours
Small, quiet eco boat tours into the largest river swamp in the US, with wildlife seen as wildlife.
Best hotels in Baton Rouge
Watermark Baton Rouge, Autograph Collection
The city's best hotel, a 1927 bank tower turned boutique with a vault door bar and river views.
Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center
The full-service riverfront workhorse, with a pool deck over the river and the most rooms downtown.
Hotel Indigo Baton Rouge Downtown
A design forward mid-tier hotel in a former federal building, usually under the Watermark on price.
Hampton Inn & Suites Baton Rouge Downtown
A reliable select-service stay with free breakfast in a walk everywhere downtown location.
Courtyard by Marriott Baton Rouge Downtown
A reliable newer-feeling downtown base for festival weekends when you will barely be in the room.
The Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU
On campus by the lakes, and walkable to Tiger Stadium, which is priceless on game day.
Renaissance Baton Rouge Hotel
A practical LSU overflow hotel with a resort-ish pool south of campus.
Baton Rouge Marriott
A four-star chain standard south of campus for visitors who will drive to sights.
Is Baton Rouge expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $100 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $185 a person |
| Splurge | $350 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Tiger Stadium: months ahead
- Santa Maria Golf Course: a few days ahead
- Last Wilderness Swamp Tours: a few days ahead
- Topgolf Baton Rouge: a few days ahead
- The Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU: months ahead
- Elsie's Plate & Pie: a few days ahead
- Mansurs on the Boulevard: a few days ahead
- Cocha: a few days ahead
- LSU home football weekends sell out hotels and good restaurants months ahead, especially for SEC games.
- Spanish Town Mardi Gras, the Blues Festival and LSU graduation need early hotel bookings downtown.
- Book Last Wilderness, Roberto's, Mansurs, headline Manship shows and Whitney entries days to a week ahead.
- Many downtown museums close or reduce hours on Mondays. Plan them Tuesday to Saturday.
- Crawfish peaks March to May and most boils end by early July.
Is Baton Rouge safe?
- Crime is real and uneven by neighbourhood, so where you base and how you move at night matters.
- Base downtown, by LSU or in Mid City, and book a known hotel rather than a random rental in an area you can't place.
- Leave nothing visible in cars. Smash and grabs at lakes, trailheads and lots are the top visitor crime.
- Treat summer heat as a safety issue. Start outdoors before 10 a.m. from May to September and carry water.
- Homelessness downtown is individual and low key, with no large encampment district at the visitor bases.
Baton Rouge travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Plantation tours that sanitise slavery. Choose Whitney for history centred on enslaved lives.
- The downtown riverboat casino as a destination. L'Auberge is the casino stay instead.
- Mall of Louisiana and Perkins Rowe dining presented as Baton Rouge food.
- Tigerland for anyone over about 23, and downtown on Sunday or Monday night expecting nightlife.
- Expecting New Orleans. There are no streetcars or Quarter here and nights end earlier.
Getting around Baton Rouge: public transport and more
- You need a car or a car mindset beyond downtown and one LSU trip.
- I-10 gridlocks at the river bridge, worst 3 to 6 p.m. Cross before 3 p.m. or after 7 p.m.
- Downtown is walkable for sights. CATS buses are infrequent and rideshare is plentiful except at stadium egress.
- BTR airport is 15 minutes north. Many visitors compare MSY in New Orleans, 75 minutes away, for more flights.
Who Baton Rouge suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Baton Rouge your trip
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