• Explore New Orleans' revitalised Arts District, filled with art galleries, restaurants, shops and world-class museums.

• See exhibitions on Mardi Gras and jazz at the Louisiana State Museum (website: http://lsm.crt.state.la.us) on Jackson Square.

• View the collection of French works at the world-renowned New Orleans Museum of Art (website: www.noma.org).

• At the Louisiana Children's Museum (website: www.lcm.org), kids of all ages can pretend to star in their own TV show or shop in a recreated mini-mart.

• Explore the Global Wildlife Center (website: www.globalwildlife.com). Visitors can enjoy horseback riding among the exotic animals that roam the 364-hectare (900-acre) park.

• Tour Rivertown USA (website: www.rivertownkenner.com), a 16-block historic district with family attractions, eight museums, fine arts gallery, repertory theatre and shops in a Victorian setting.

• View the magnificent Capitol Building, in Baton Rouge, a limestone-clad 34-storey building with a viewing platform overlooking 11 hectares (27 acres) of formal gardens in the Capitol grounds.

• Visit Houma (website: www.houmatourism.com), a bayou town surrounded by swampland. The town is known for its many swamp tours, where alligators, wading birds and myriad other forms of swamplife thrive.

• Tour the Tabasco factory in New Iberia (website: www.cityofnewiberia.com), where the world-famous Tabasco sauce is made. The city offers tours of subtropical gardens, stately antebellum homes, rice mills and the hot sauce and pepper plant farms.

• Stop by the RW Norton Museum (website: www.rwnaf.org). It features Old West artists Frederic Remington and Charles M Russell, and has one of the largest and most complete collections of Russell's bronze sculptures. 

• View one of the most important archaeological finds in the USA. The Poverty Point State Historic Site (website: www.nps.gov/popo) features an ancient Native American religious area dating from 1700BC.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.