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Swamp Chic describes a girlfriend travel area, where enjoying outdoor adventures is blended with the most upscale, yet laid back, but refined eateries. Wait, there’s more to the definition, because an area like Houma, Louisiana can’t be captured in a small statement. There’s not a one-word fits all for the area!
Sassy, fresh, adventurous, historical, casual and dressy all define this epic trip as none will be the same. There’s so much to do! I am describing Bayou Country because it offers deep South country charm, with a bit of glitz.
Bayou Countries’ Swamp Chic offers vivid flavor, intense culture and history and fun side bites to just nestle and stop at. From roadside adventures that allow you to gaze at the 70% water covered Houma areas, to fun ice balls, historic destinations and vintage ice cream stops, it’s a girlfriend getaway defining trip.
Swamp Chic Girlfriend Getaways In Bayou Country
It’s funny but simple is understated fun, and it’s what catches my attention over and over. Some seek over-the-top luxuries, I find myself lost in things that others walk on by. When you can see life through rose colored glasses, and it all seems so clear, is the moment you have found Bayou Country.
There are iconic donut stops, candy stories and drives on highways over swamps. Adventure is enlivened not by what you do, but by the surroundings you are in. Open your eyes, everything unfolds faster than you can blink your eyes.
In Bayou Country, there is an effortless blend of day to night activities that keep you moving, and learning about the Houma area even when you don’t realize it. Swamp Chic is Bayou Country, it’s Houma, Louisiana.
Here grace and elegance of the past are supported by the pillars of history. Timeless elegance stands tall in plantations converted to historical homes or markets on the weekends.
Yet somehow time moves forward and continues to emerge. Chic because the Houma area is near shopping, schools and industrial areas, yet, away from them at the same time.
Plantations, Estates & Parishes Oh My!
Let’s start with Parishes, they are equivalent to COUNTIES everywhere else. Parishes are what they are called in Bayou Country. Plantation homes, they are scattered about and each comes with a piece of history and a story.
No plantation home is the same and they are just something to revel in for images and a bit of history.
Claim stakes to your favorite ‘castle’ (plantations that you love in one breathe) and then drive down a different road and shout out your love of drive through daiquiris in another!
You could spend the day looking at different plantations or learning the history of the area. Sometimes it’s eerie imaging the past that has now moved forward, yet mystifying.
Defining Houma
You want the best girlfriend getaway? It’s down in Bayou Country, and I had the time of my life with Joni my girl friend exploring and uncovering the area. What you need to realize and most don’t is that Houma is not in a desolate area.
In fact, you can stay in what feels like a countryside retreat but it’s really not in the country! Swamp Chic is a fusion of culture, history, upscale lodging in true Southern Bed & Breakfasts, with a side of dining ranging from casual to refined.
Upscale Lodging & A Crime of Culinary Bliss
During a drive to get from one plantation to a bed and breakfast, we stopped and got amazing cupcakes in a locally known and loved by Houma folks cupcake stop. Also declared the best cupcakes in Louisiana by a few people we mentioned it to!
Your luxury digs in a former plantation home, of a famed local judge, provides a huge comfy couch in-suite. I am feeling a bit guilty knowing a crime of un-punishable elements is about to occur atop the couch. Here is where girlfriend getaway moments of swamp chic authority are defined!
Le Cupcake Devouring Episode – Chic As Can Be!
6 Cupcakes made it to the suite of the bed and breakfast currently with a pinky swear promise of ‘NO sampling until the morning!’ ‘They are breakfast’ we say! No eating till the Morning, and end it with a ‘pinky swear’ can this happen? Will I hold back?
Fast forward to the morning that I thought would NEVER get here because I have been eyeing up those cupcakes!
Cupcake Sins
They survived the night and now it is time to get down and dirty with Swamp Chic Indulgence. Our girlfriend getaway Swamp Chic morning included an impromptu video of a morning session of cupcake stuffing your face moments. We had to taste test in the name of food journalism.
It’s the time you can’t make a mistake because others are depending on you to ‘take one for the team!’ and we did! The crime of this girlfriend getaway, indulgence and there can be no punishment or shaming for sampling something so sweet and yummy.
See Ya Later Alligator
Now it’s time to get your gator on, and you might be wanting to say, ‘See ya later alligator’ or maybe you will shop here as they have an intense collection of Houma Souvenirs.
Then, there’s the moments when you come face to face at 10AM in the morning with an alligator, and then follow that adventure up by an 11 AM food stop for a fresh wrap with shrimp in it!
Gator Me Not! My moment, and the locals had a pretty good laugh at my ‘fraidy-cat’ side was holding a little gator. The well-cared for gator had no way to lash at me, and yet, I could not stop flinching and being squeamish. Gator girl I ain’t.
Staring at gators through fences, while watching Tim the Gator Man enter the pen, is also part of your Houma experience. You gotta or your trip is missing something.
Trust me there will be moments when you wonder if Tim is coming back out of there? While I am tried to breathe through my nose, while my hands are snapping photos. Nuts? Yes! Swamp Chic, TOTALLY.
Adrenaline Feed Please
Jolt your adrenaline with a gator moment and you’ll need to eat. After all, when we all travel with our guy companions we don’t eat. Conversely when we travel with our girlfriends on Bayou Country trips, it’s ALL IN to eating.
Yes, in the clothes we went to a gator farm in to a locals-only eatery. Oh My Gosh y’all its quaint and trendy in one breathe and, on a road, so close to the swamps and gator farm.
Parking Local Style – Defining Your Swamp Chic Moments
Travel to a local hotspot for lunch and Swamp Chic is defined when you cobble squat your car atop the grass, cock-eyed like you are driving an F250 because it’s that busy at the locals-only known lunch spot.
Let it be known that NO parking spots available is not standing in the way of a girlfriend adventure’s belly! Come-on y’all.
The question on the inside is, “do you want potato salad or chips’, my thoughts, “dude, this is a swamp chic girlfriend getaway, is that even a question? :#CHIPS buddy, Chips!”
The Swamps & Swamp Chic
I’ve called out the word ‘swamp’ a lot but there are a lot of swamps in the area. Get a guide that is the best in the area and you got yourself a photo stampede about to happen!
Inhale, exhale, feel the mist of the motor against your skin, and hold on tight, Captain Wayne is about to thrill you!
He doesn’t have to do anything more than steer through the swamps, navigate through marshes, rivers, closed areas no one can access unless they are on a air boat and he does so with grace and carefully.
There’s no GPS to get you through these swamps and either you grew up Houma or you ain’t no swamp-master!
Breathtaking waterways, from canals, to swamps, to bayous, lowlands, wetlands, rivers and marshes. You’ll want to frolic in the marshes (well only in an air boat, let’s not get crazy here)
Swaying trees along the airboat ride in the swamp areas and at ‘camps’ in the middle of very desolate marsh areas all create a picturesque immersion into the getaway. Surreal as it comes, because the camp comes complete with sun-soaking gators on the docks. (LOL) Yep, I’m telling the truth!
There are epic moments that define your Houma girlfriend getaway. How about gawking in amazement when witnessing a bald eagle atop the trees trading watch over a nest with its partner?
Or watching a 10 foot plus alligator scamper through the marsh greens? Toss in an owl that just flies from nowhere and lands above you, and suddenly your trip turns into an adventure!
Paper Towels & Crab Leg Crackers Please
How do you create an all-star finally to an outside adventure day that includes gators and air boats? Simple! Eat a meal at a restaurant named for all those ‘things’ you saw, “Cajun Critters’
All bets are off with this off-road popular LOCAL eatery. Known for its extremely fresh seafood menu and super huge portions, this is as ‘bayou country’ as it gets. No need to be dressed up, because baby, fish juice be ready to roll down those forearms, if you really tackle the meal.
Greeted by a gravel parking area, an outdoor bar, a Christmas tree with a gator seat, you’ve arrived. More Chachkies than you can shelf.
You have arrived at what I can term as ‘the official bayou country restaurant you don’t want to miss!’ Girls night is crying out for you to join in here. Let me translate, ‘dig in, over eat, don’t stop till those elephant platters are skeletal only!’
There’s a sink in the middle of the restaurant for cleaning your fish-juice cladding fingers and paper towel rolls on ever table. Drinks are served in plastic cups and there’s nothing fancy here.
Portions that will have you thinking your eyes are bigger than your stomach, somehow lead to crack, pick, bite, swallow, repeat. Oh yum!
Reverence to Swamp Chic Stops Along The Way
Eat, drink and be happy along the path. Don’t drive with an empty cup holder, fill that sucker with water and keep a bag of the local chips in the car at all times! This is how girlfriend trips roll in Houma, Louisiana. Truly the moments that define us!
Perhaps one of the best moments for traveling along as gal pals in Bayou Country is when you request a, “Stop the car” on a road trip to a plantation just because there’s a boat in a bayou that is begging to be captured? Capturing Swamp Chic is finding old charm with updated potential. Old is new again. Fun is simple.
It’s about asking 100x, “do you think there’s a gator in there?” and never taking your eyes off the canals, and waterways, while your friend drives the car and lets you enjoy!
A Gardener’s Dream or A Nightmare?
Chauvin Sculpture and Folk Art Garden is an unusual find, on our Swamp Chic Bayou trip is either a Gardener’s dream or a personal nightmare. That said, the folk art sculpture garden is one of the top 10 in the world, people travel here just to see this!
It’s artistic, creepy, interesting, soulful, un-defined, sculpted, deep, yet shallow, personality defining and gives ‘artist unknown’ a new meaning even though the artist is known.
Feed Your Soul
Feed your soul, includes food, beverage, history, adventure, oohs and awes, then you’ve arrived to defining that girlfriend getaway in Houma. Laugh, snort, giggle, whisper, gasp, feel solemn, be bright-eyed and excited, and sometimes tearful towards history (if you are a sensitive person) and then you have an appreciation for ‘Down South in the Bayou Baby!’
Defining Swamp Chic might best captioned as this, “think of your favorite day to night outfit’ now you got it, that’s Bayou Countries version of Swamp Chic. Your journey will go from day to night and night to morning. Your travel in Houma comes complete with endless ‘to-do’ options and still manage to create a list that you need to go back and finish.
Seeking a Swamp Chic Girlfriend Getaway? Houma is your destination! Go for the history, adventure, the food, and culture and come back a disciple of the area. ~Dana XO
My trip was hosted by Houma, Louisiana. Opinions, images and content is based on my own trip.
