St. Joseph Plantation

Great informational tour. They have alot of artifacts on display. They also explain the process of refining sugar. We enjoyed St.Joseph.

One of the few fully intact sugar plantations remaining in the river parishes, the descendants of the second family to have owned this plantation and the neighboring Felicity Plantation still own, operate and maintain both sites. They have just opened the Felicity Plantation for tours, though it's still a work in progress getting it renovated. Both sites are less commercialized than some others in the area. St Joseph does an "in mourning" tours in October, which I hope to come back for.St Joseph Plantation is one of my favorite tours so far. It was just myself and the tour guide. The tour guide (I can't remember her name) is well versed in the genealogy of the families in the area. The tour started with a short video on how sugar cane is processed, planted, harvested and is very interesting. The guide spent a lot of time with me telling me all of the details, answering all of my questions and thoroughly covering every single detail. I really enjoyed this tour. It was also not as white washed as some of the other tours in the area.One of the guides also volunteered to give me a tour of Felicity (after I paid of course) next door. It was also just me and the tour guide on this tour. The downstairs they are making to be like how the house would have been originally and the second floor how the second family would have had it in the mid-20th century. Upstairs they had the top half of what was an elevator they had installed, and I think would make for perfect photo shoots for someone announcing they were coming out of the closet, and where else would be better since that kind of thing was looked down upon even up to the recent past. They are still working on this house, so no photos are allowed inside, but this has been the set of many films.The whole experience was amazing. I suggest both tours if you are in the area for other tours. Make a whole day of it!

This was easily my favorite plantation! It's family owned and the tour guide was so lovely and full of knowledge about both the St. Joseph and Felicity houses. Beautiful grounds and ancient oaks, Theodore and Simon An experience you can't miss!

We went to St Joseph's to see the property featured "in mourning". Ok, so I've put off doing this review for a long, long time, simply bc it's emotional for me.... Because I take great issue with Plantations for a plethora of obvious reasons. I feel physically ill in their presence, I view them for what they are/were and that is nothing good in any way. St Joseph's is still owned by the same family today that owned it a century ago. That said, we came here bc of the history and how this family owns its history. In fact, the family itself works the property & many of the tours. Many of you will recognize the property from Queen Sugar and 12 Years A Slave. The history of the property is reviewed throughout the tour, and I want to note that the current family - the Waguespack-Simon Family purchased it in 1877 in a Post Civil-War Auction, and it has remained in their hands ever since. I think it is this reason that they are brutally honest with the history & retrospect of this property, and I appreciated how it wasn't glossed over. Sylvia covered the previous owners, their histories, their ties with the Enslaved communities *including Dr Mericq*, and how the property was built by the hands of the skilled Enslaved men - because their "owners" didn't have that level of expertise or craftsmanship. I tool a picture of a doorway that looked into a doorway that looked into a doorway- almost 200yrs later, how many storms, how many families, etc and everything still perfectly in alignment. She had a true admiration for their skill, recognizing how much of the community was built by them and given credit to others instead... she covered so much of that while also covering the families history, as well of the Mourning Practices of the Predominantly Catholic Community of the time. And I also have to give her props for pointing us to the Whitney Plantation, which was a life changing experience. So thank you to Sylvia for a truly amazing tour and for presenting such an accurate accounting of the history.

I purchased a groupon (like everyone else at the tour) for a visit to St. Joseph's Plantation. The drive is about 50 mins from New Orleans and is a bit smaller than Oak Alley. Pros: The actors and story tellers were fabulous. The history behind the house and the amount of detail they spent creating the tour was amazing. They had about 6-10 actors/participants in the recreation and they made it really realistic. I went in October so I think they were having a special about the deceased within the household. Cons: The plantation is a bit small and I wish they focused more on the Slaves such as slaves living conditions, living quarters, specific stories about the slaves experiences, etc. They kind of just tacked on a bit about the slaves at the end as an optional part which was nice but I think it should be included in the real thing. Overall, the tour is incredibly worth it for the groupon price ($10-11 a person). I don't think I would pay more than $15 though. The staff was very nice and directed us on where to go. I would highly recommend this plantation. It's about 5 minutes away from oak alley which you can just walk around the perimeter for free.

My friend and I took a tour to two of the plantations - St Joseph and the Whitney. We were Interested in St. Joseph because one of our favorite TV shows, Queen Sugar is filmed at it. The tour was lovely and the guide gave a lot of good information on the working plantation and history of the slaves at this plantation. I've been to other plantations that did not handle this subject appropriately or sensitively. We were interested in the Whitney because it has been turned into the only museum on the history of slaves in Louisiana. The tour guide at the Whitney was excellent. She gave us a lot of new information and handled some of the people in our tour group that were getting angry and upset very well. She was able to calm people down and remind them that this was an educational place and should be used for learning and healing but repeatedly said she knew this was an upsetting topic and it should be. I would highly recommend both of these tours that tours by Isabelle offers.

Our tour guide was a sweet lady, very informative.I don't think it was a complete waste, but not worth the hour long drive from Nola.Fortunately, it's within 5 mins or so from 3 other larger plantations. If you get a good deal on Groupon or the like and have time to kill, I'd say go.

Our tour of St. Joseph's Plantation started with a 10 minute video about sugar cane and its production. The video overall was informative, but it ended with commentary on the health benefits of sugar, which was definitely not true and uncomfortable to watch. Our tour guide did warn us about this though which we appreciated. Afterwards, we were given a tour of the plantation by an enthusiastic and very knowledgeable tour guide who was open to answering any questions we had. It was interesting to hear more about the history of the plantation owners and their lives. Our tour guide briefly discussed the history of the slaves on the plantation, but I would have loved to hear more about it. Overall, it was a fun day activity and easy to get to via car from New Orleans (one hour drive). Would love to check out some of the other plantations in the area In the future!

St. Joe's, as they call it, is as "family-run" establishment, as they say. It's one of the few plantations that kept running over the years, and it has been owned by the same family for something like 100 years. I wish I could say more details about exactly what family, but I went on 3 plantation tours in 1 day and was a bit overwhelmed with all of the history. It was opened to the public fairly recently, so it does not have as much traffic as some other plantations, but I would highly recommend it if you're on a day trip to plantations.Suffice it to say, St. Joe's is worth a stop. It's quite beautiful, and our tour guide was very friendly and informative despite the fact that we were running late and had to shorten our tour to about 50 minutes! The tour guides were not dressed up in period garb, which I have stated before makes me feel more comfortable--those gowns just seem hoaky. I like to think the tour is about the plantation, telling its stories, not pretending we still live in the 1800s.

This was an amazing tour! Loved seeing a plantation home that is still in use by the family. We toured felicity and highly recommend it. It's about a 1 min drive from St Joseph. It's a great tour to combine with Oak Alley bc the original owners were relatives and the plantations are very close to each other.