Cajun Country: A Day Trip Travel Guide for Lafayette, Louisiana

One glance at the city of Lafayette’s name (and its former name, Vermilionville), and you’ll know you’re in Cajun Country.

Despite being Louisiana’s fourth-largest city, I confess that I could not have located Lafayette on a blank map of the state before we booked our trip. So why did we travel there?

A few weeks earlier I received an email from Frontier advertising their penny fares, which meant that certain flights were priced at the cost of taxes and fees plus a single penny. The catch, of course, is that these fares are very limited, and all were only available on specific routes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Saturdays. For fun, I looked to see what was available for a roundtrip flight on Saturdays during the sale period; as we’d just flown to New Orleans for the day, I knew it was possible something would be available.

And there it was for $28.62 per person: a flight to Lafayette departing from Orlando early in the morning and returning in the early evening. We booked, and it was settled; we were going to Lafayette.

With about nine hours in the city, we had to carefully pick and choose what we would do. We established a relatively simple plan for the day (which, spoiler alert: was somewhat thwarted by the weather) and a few weeks later we were up before the sun and driving to the airport.

Headed to Lafayette for the day? Here’s what I’d recommend, and what else I’d do with more time:

THINGS TO DO IN LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA

Saturday Morning Zydeco Breakfast at Buck & Johnny’s

Buck & Johnny's | 100 Berard St, Breaux Bridge, LA 70517

The food at Buck and Johnny’s is good, but that’s not why you’re there. If you happen to find yourself in the Lafayette area on a Saturday morning, indulge in a little Cajun culture at their weekly Zydeco breakfast. It may be only 8 a.m., but it seems that everyone is ready for a little drinking, music, and dancing. The cover is just $5 and the lineup changes each week, but it felt like we were the only ones who didn’t know anyone else. Get a front-row table seat if you can, or if you arrive late as we did, pop upstairs for a bird’s eye view. If you’re confident in your Zydeco dancing skills, have at it, but I could only muster up the courage to participate in a line dance – just to say I did. We were a little underwhelmed by the food and found it overpriced. If we had to do it again, we might just share a little something and stick to beers. Note, Buck & Johnny’s is located about nine miles away from Lafayette, in neighboring Breaux Bridge.

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Vermilionville

Vermilionville | 300 Fisher Rd, Lafayette, LA 70508

Vermilionville is located within walking distance of the Lafayette Airport, so if your flight happens to land during their opening hours, you can just walk right over. Ours did not but we came back after the Zydeco breakfast to explore the historic village. The recommended visit length is 90 minutes, but due to our time constraints, we had to trim our visit down to an hour. We greatly enjoyed learning more about Acadian life in the late 18th century and onwards and appreciated the staff and volunteers demonstrating various period-appropriate skills and crafts like quilting and blacksmithing.

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Genterie Supply Co.

Genterie Supply Co. | 408 Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501

Shopping may not be high on a day-trip agenda, but I couldn’t resist popping into Genterie Supply Co. They carry a well-curated selection of goods from ethical and indie brands – and also have the sweetest shop dog ever (hi, Remi!). I was glad to have the chance to try on this Lacausa silk top in person without bothering with shipping/returns and picked up this cute pair of earrings from Machete that I’ve hardly taken off since.

WHERE TO EAT + DRINK IN LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA

Rêve Coffee

Rêve Coffee | 200-A Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501

There seem to be a few decent local coffee places in Lafayette, but there is a branch of Rêve Coffee Roasters located right in the heart of downtown – and they roast their own beans. We ordered our usual (that’s a pour-over for me and a cappuccino for Michael) and were content to sit out of the rain for a little while with a great warm drink. As we often do, we purchased a bag of whole beans to take home as a souvenir.

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Wurst Biergarten

Wurst Biergarten | 537 Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501

Wurst Biergarten easily wins the best name of the day. Everything was wet and quiet due to the downpour, but we stayed nice and dry under the beer tent. Without enough time to visit a brewery, a local pub is a great option for tasting local beers without traveling too far.

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Johnson’s Boucanière

Johnson's Boucanière | 1111 St John St, Lafayette, LA 70501

The only request Michael made of our visit to Lafayette was to find a place that served boudin balls, and we found those and more at Johnson’s Boucanière (by the way, this video is a great introduction to the art of boudin, but please don’t watch it if you’re squeamish). Still full from breakfast we shared a combo platter with brisket, sausage, macaroni and cheese, and baked beans as well as an order of four boudin balls. They were just as delicious as we’d hoped and were served right out of the fryer. The only available seating on-site is located on the wrap-around porch, which was a comfortable place to enjoy our meal until the downpour began. They closed early on the day of our visit due to approaching storms, and graciously let us wait for our Uber inside (and even fed us more boudin while we waited).

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Borden’s Ice Cream

Borden's Ice Cream | 1103 Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501

The Borden’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Lafayette is the last one standing in the country, and upon entering it feels like you’ve stepped back in time. Order a scoop or a sundae (go for the butter pecan!) and sit at the counter to take in all of the memorabilia on the walls. In one of the bathrooms, you can even find an old menu with prices that seem outlandishly low today (and it also lists an item called “Lady Borden” – what?).

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Pop’s Poboys

Pop's Poboys | 740 Jefferson St, Lafayette, LA 70501

I regret to inform you that I do not have a photo of a po’ boy sandwich from Pop’s Poboys because we ate it in the dark during our car ride home from the airport (likely risking salmonella, but travel always involves risks, you know?). A po’ boy was high on our list of things to eat during our day in Lafayette, but we were simply too full after our gluttonous meal at Johnson’s to do so while in the city. And we’d actually intended to visit a different place to get our po’ boy fix, but the weather really made things tough. Pop’s was nearby, and I’m happy to say that even hours later our po’ boy was solid.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA

Unless you live in Texas (Dallas/Ft. Worth or Houston), ~~Denver~~, ~~Orlando~~, Charlotte, or Atlanta, you won’t be flying directly into Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT). If you’re considering flying in for a visit, you’ll also want to check fares to Baton Rouge (BTR) a little over an hour away, or New Orleans (MSY), which is a little over two hours away. Rental cars are available at LFT airport if you do fly in at a price of around $40 for the day (rate in May 2019), or Uber/Lyft are available if you wish to skip the rental. However, there were very few drivers working the day we visited, and several times we waited more than twenty minutes for a car to arrive. If we had to do it again, we’d rent a car. We’d have saved money, and surprisingly, time. Oh, and curious about what we spent to fly there for the day? I broke it down here.

WITH MORE TIME IN LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA

Lafayette plays host to a number of festivals, like the Festival International de Louisiane and the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, which according to the locals we spoke with, are heavily attended worthwhile events. There seems to be an abundance of “nature”-type opportunities in the area, from a quick visit to wildlife-filled Cypress Lake on UL Lafayette’s campus or departing for the day on a swamp tour. The area is filled with enough history to house not one but two living museums. With more time I’d have liked to venture further out to the second, LARC’s Acadian Village. On the food and drink front, I wish we’d had more time to try out the po’boys at Old Tyme Grocery and roll through a drive-thru daiquiri joint for a cup of alcohol-laced ice and sugar.

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Have you ever visited Lafayette? What would you add to this list?

One Comment on “Cajun Country: A Day Trip Travel Guide for Lafayette, Louisiana”

April Rodea says:

June 11, 2019 at 11:09 pm

These are really nice photos!! It’s also really nice to just sit in a cafe with a warm drink in hand while watching the rain. Anyhoo, love the earrings. Looks good on you! ♡