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Lafayette, LA


Sbbruin

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Ok so looks like I need to quickly book a trip for a wedding in Lafayette over Thanksgiving.  Long story, but this was thrown together at the last minute.  BIL so I have to go. Quick search of flights gives me nothing direct out of LA,, or even to Baton Rouge.  Wtf?  Everything is a 5-7 hr connecting flight.  What am I missing here?

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Depending on timing, you may be better off flying into Houston and driving. I believe it’s only a three hour drive, but it could save you some airport time. It also looks like you can get into Baton Rouge from Dallas, Houston or Atlanta, so I would think you could find something with a shorter connection time.

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I’d fly into BR and drive. I-10 construction  between Baytown and Lake Charles has traffic all kinds of fucked up right now. They are also setting up for a major renovation of the I-10 bridge in Lake Charles this spring - it can be hit or miss there too.

 

Wife and I drove from Lake Charles to Houston last Saturday. We left at 1:30, got to Houston at 7:30pm. It’s normally a ~2 hour drive...

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3 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Fly direct to New Orleans.  Eat and drink well.  Drive to Lafayette.

This.  There are LAX-MSY nonstops on SWA.  However the airport is west of N.O. so you'd have to go the other way for 25 mins. into New Orleans, but no big deal this time of year to park (I think). 

N.O to Lafayette is about 1:45 from the airport.  

There are nonstops from LAX to Hobby (not IAH) on SWA, about same price, but it's an hour longer drive and at that time of year it's a little risky on I-10 with traffic.  God help you if you get stuck on the Atchafalaya Basin bridge (basically about a 20 mile long stretch of trestle over the swamp).  I did one time and it took 7 hours to get off of it. 

I think LAX→MSY is the way to go.  A little over 3 hours nonstop.

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1 hour ago, phdhorn said:

 God help you if you get stuck on the Atchafalaya Basin bridge (basically about a 20 mile long stretch of trestle over the swamp).  I did one time and it took 7 hours to get off of it. 

I-10 on either side of Lafayette is always a dicey proposition.  In June we were stopped on I-10 just west of Lafayette for almost two hours due to a fatality wreck.  Thankfully I've never been stopped over the Basin, and if traffic cooperates, I always think it's a pretty fantastic drive over the swamp. 

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I was with my (at the time) 9 year old.  We got out (traffic had stopped for 2 hours), played catch and dribbled the basketball, and just pissed off the side of the bridge and we wanted to. Nobody cared.

Sucked if you were a woman.

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24 minutes ago, orange dream said:

Spent a couple of days in Lafayette in the early 90's.  My lasting memory is that they had an all-you-can-eat Taco Bell. Didn't try it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider the possibilities.

I think I would die at something like that.  Don't they have an all you can eat Popeyes?  

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I think I would die at something like that.  Don't they have an all you can eat Popeyes?  

 

I know I dined at one in NO at the 95 Sugar Bowl.

 

College student nirvana.

 

Also we just going to let OP slide on the reason for this trip.

 

Telll your BIL to wrap it next time....those 10 seconds were not worth it

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11 hours ago, South Austin said:

I-10 on either side of Lafayette is always a dicey proposition.  In June we were stopped on I-10 just west of Lafayette for almost two hours due to a fatality wreck.  Thankfully I've never been stopped over the Basin, and if traffic cooperates, I always think it's a pretty fantastic drive over the swamp. 

Yeah and traffic is Baton Rouge is also fucked if you hit it during rush hour even if there are no wrecks.

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Lafayette airport has two gates...seriously. The only reason they have an airport at all is the oil bidness. Prejean's for traditional cajun. Olde Tyme Grocery is good for traditional po-boys, and there's a place out in Broussard called hook & boil that I like. I also like Blue Dog Cafe. They've got a little bit of everything though it's predominately cajun. 

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20 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Sounds like NOLA is the call.  Thanks.

Agreed that is the best call.  The Baton Rouge airport is small and expensive to fly into.  I think 90% of flights are United connecting through IAH or Delta connecting through Atlanta.

17 hours ago, mushroomface said:

Get boudin at the Best Stop in Scott.

Specifically a bag of three boudin balls as the perfect road trip snack.

16 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Parrain's Seafood Restaurant in Baton Rouge, sit at the bar if you can. You can thank me later 

Palabra.  Be sure to get the chargrilled oysters.

17 hours ago, TornACL said:

Check the bridge situation in Baton Rouge if you're coming from New Orleans.

Between 5am and 8am and 3pm and 7pm getting over the bridge is god awful.  Outside of those times you have a chance.  Also, coming from Lafayette back to New Orleans, the left lane must exit right after you get off the bridge and the right lane must exit right after that.  Effectively I10 chokes down to 1 through lane.

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1 hour ago, TornACL said:

As I recall it's a little off the beaten path but I also have had the crawfish etoufee pot pie at Bon Temps Grill in Lafayette. Delicious. I need to go out there in February for the UT-ULaLa baseball series.

That's right up my alley. And it looks like that isn't far fro where we are staying.

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1 hour ago, TornACL said:

As I recall it's a little off the beaten path but I also have had the crawfish etoufee pot pie at Bon Temps Grill in Lafayette. Delicious. I need to go out there in February for the UT-ULaLa baseball series.

Agreed, Bon Temps Grill is damn good.  Similar food as Blue Dog, but more casual. 

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32 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

That's right up my alley. And it looks like that isn't far fro where we are staying.

It was funny, when I stopped there for lunch, the place was full of people who were traveling through on I10 and who found it via Google search, even though it isn't right off the freeway. The bartender mentioned that they get tons of 'drive-through' traffic. I guess their Trip Advisor / SEO game is really strong. 

I was nervous when I overheard that, but the food lived up to the expectations, so that's good.

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Bookmarking so I can come back later and give you a good write up. My wife is from Lafayette and I have been going there semi regularly for the past 12 years. One thing i would mention first, though, is to look at taking HWY 90 to Lafayette instead of I-10. Google will tell you its longer but I (as well as my friends I’ve told about this who didn’t take my advice) have never NOT had some kind of dumbass traffic between NO/Baton Rouge or Baton Rouge/Lafayette. Just a thought. 

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1 hour ago, Etexhorn13 said:

Bookmarking so I can come back later and give you a good write up. My wife is from Lafayette and I have been going there semi regularly for the past 12 years. One thing i would mention first, though, is to look at taking HWY 90 to Lafayette instead of I-10. Google will tell you its longer but I (as well as my friends I’ve told about this who didn’t take my advice) have never NOT had some kind of dumbass traffic between NO/Baton Rouge or Baton Rouge/Lafayette. Just a thought. 

Better listen to him, Flounder.  He's pre-med.

Coming home from New Orleans earlier this year, we were watching the Googletrons maps for bullshit on I-10 wbound and saw 3 major clusterfucks between lake chuck and Baytown.

Took a bunch of backroads between sulphur and Brenham.  It took 9+ to get home, but i guarantee we saved at least an hour and a half and a shitload of sanity. 

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10 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Lafayette airport has two gates...seriously. The only reason they have an airport at all is the oil bidness. Prejean's for traditional cajun. Olde Tyme Grocery is good for traditional po-boys, and there's a place out in Broussard called hook & boil that I like. I also like Blue Dog Cafe. They've got a little bit of everything though it's predominately cajun. 

Second for Prejean's. Just happened to look good so we stopped there about 15 years ago when driving to Florida. I'll definitely revisit that place if I'm ever close again.

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6 hours ago, kevwun said:

It took us 2 hours to go 20 miles once because of the bridge in Baton Rouge.  I would have rather been driving down back roads than sitting in that mess.

There aren't too many back roads that cross the Mississippi

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