We had a beautiful day, a knowledgeable and personable guide, and a terrific experience. Highly recommended.

Hurricane Gustav came ashore yesterday and stormed straight up through the Atchafalaya basin hitting the heart of Acadiana, Cajun country. This beautiful unique part of Louisiana has a population of over 1/2 million people. The hurricane's eye came ashore just east of Atchafalaya Bay in Terrabonne Parish. TV coverage was focused elsewhere and completely missed any mention of the storms impact on this area. I wonder how much damage has been done? NPR showed a wonderful documentary this week called "Atchafalaya Houseboat." In the 1970s, Gwen Carpenter Roland was about to start work on her doctorate when she decided instead to live off the land -- and water of the Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Gwen's lovely voice narrates a journey back to that amazing ten years of her life. Much more is available on this amazing lady including her book and photos by C.C. Lockwood. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5367035 Even though our vacation of July is over and we are back home it seems like the Atchafalaya is still calling to us. Thanks again Kim for taking us into the truly unique American wonderland wilderness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_Basin read more

The Atchafalaya Experience - Gwen Carpenter Roland, "Atchafalaya Houseboat", photo by C.C. Lockwood - Tours Near Me

Had a fun day on the water with Kim and his dog Otis!!! Despite the heat of the day Kim kept us laughing and entertained the entire 3 hours. We saw 5 or 6 species of birds, lots of alligators (babies too!) and jumping carp! Nutty! The cypress forest is magical and mysterious... so beautiful. We had a private tour and got exactly what we paid to experience... a more personal experience with a long time local. Thank you Kim! read more

Despite the previous "excellent" Yelp reviews for this tour, I regret that my group's experience was truly awful. Do NOT take this tour if Courte, Sr. (in his mid-80's) shows up to lead the tour without his son. First, he failed to provide any safety briefing or point out the locations of the lifejackets. After less than 10 minutes underway, our boat's engine stopped working. After numerous interventions over more than 20 minutes to restart it, rather than turning back, he had our much larger boat tied up to one of the skiffs and we proceeded underway. During the next hour, despite the fact that he was not driving, he offered no tour guiding narration, but flirted with another female guest. He did not pay close attention to where we were going, and the friend he had asked to guide other boat was not familiar with the area. So we traveled slowly and inefficiently, with Courte not describing anything for us along the way except for a brief amount of time around an osprey nest. Finally, an hour and 40 minutes into our trip, the engine started (I think it was just flooded the whole time) . He then attempted to take us into a shallow closed-in area, to see some bird's nests with baby birds. So in we went, where he promptly ran over a large log, despite a guest on the bow yelling to him to watch out. We then spent many minutes trying to free the boat. We then went farther in and did get a good view of the baby birds in their nest. Unfortunately, he was not able to extricate us from this close-in area. We then spent 10-15 minutes trying to extricate ourselves. As an experienced powerboater and sailboater, I found some of the attempts he made to extricate us to be inexplicable. During this time he scraped against trees, tearing off bark, fouled the boat again on underbrush, and hit trees so hard that the impact bent the steel poles on the boat's sides holding the safety nets. Then, the engine stopped again and could not be started. Because one of my friends was feeling very unsafe and insisted on returning to the dock, he placed us in the friend's boat and we started home. Partway home, this guy asked for my help in reading his cell phone compass, as he did not have his glasses. He told us that he did not know how to get back to the dock, as he was not from the local area and Courte had asked him to help out the previous evening. We therefore relied on my friend's satellite-navigation app to guide us home. I'm not sure how long we would've been out there without this navigational assistance. He also told us that the last time he had been asked by Courte to assist as a guide, that Courte's boat's engine had failed. I am confident that Courte's son is an excellent and capable guide based on other reviews. Unfortunately, he was not with us, and it is my opinion that the father's actions, at least on this day, were deficient. read more

OMG we had soooooo much fun with Coerte and Mr. Kim. Not only are the knowledgeable, but they are invested and CARE about the Bayou. No alligator marshmallow feedings and a respect for the Eco system. At one point I counted 22 gators around us. Ugh, it was amazing! read more

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First swamp tour. We were passing through LA and found this company last minute through yelp. It was great, they were able to meet us that afternoon. The boat was nice, they provided life jackets and for the kids and gave us lots of information about the area. We saw plenty of birds and beautiful Spanish moss filled trees but no crocs. read more

The Atchafalaya Experience - Great for kids to see and explore ! - Tours Near Me

Very knowledgeable. Well worth the money. Plan to go again when there are nesting birds. read more

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Kim can call an Osprey like no other. My experience with the tour was great. I didn't ride along with his father but met the guy, seemed cool enough. The water was high and we only saw the head of one gator, no big deal in my book. The only thing that would of made my trip better would of been shooting some of those Mexican ducks and rubbing them down in bbq sauce. Kim was personable and very friendly and knowledgeable of the habitat. I highly recommend this tour. Two thumbs up read more

Great tour. Kim is a wonderful guide - very knowledgeable about the ecology of the marsh and the critters. Excellent for photographers and bird lovers and he tells good stories! read more

My wife and I are naturalists -- we love birds and nature in general, but we're not fanatics. We've been on perhaps a dozen swamp tours in the southern US and this is definitely the best. The guide knew his stuff, we were in a small boat (there were five people on the tour, but the boat could probably hold 6-8) which could get out of the channels and right into the swamp and we spent over three hours winding our way through the Atchafalaya. He found birds -- the most exciting for us were several owls -- but the herons, ducks, and egrets were more beautiful. This was good enough that we'll make an effort to return for the same tour at different times of year. (And it helps that the Atchafalaya itself is excellent!) There were no airboats in the distance and no trained alligators!! 4/20/2013 -- We liked them so much last year that we came back. This time for a dawn tour of a major rookery. Fabulous! We IDed 40 species (we kept a list) and there were another dozen (ducks and warblers) we could not ID. Definitely the best we've been on. read more

This was an absolutely FANTASTIC experience for our family of 5. Kim is extremely knowledgeable about the local wildlife, full of stories and unbelievable patience. Our tour lasted an extra hour because he was having so much fun and so were we! I would definitely go back with a better camera because of all the cool things we saw! read more

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When we wanted to take our son (a real shutter-bug) visiting from Ohio, to see the wildlife here in Louisiana, we checked Yelp! One review stated they had tried them all, and Kim was the best guide for swamp tours. They were right, he met us at the Butte La Rose welcome center on Route 10, and brought his boat. It had seats for 5 plus pilot. Kim loves the area and conveys it with enthusiasm showing us nesting areas for alligators, local birds, even had fish jump out of the water for us. We even got to hold a baby alligator he scooped up for us to appreciate, before letting it go in the swamp. It sprinkled a little while we were out (10 minutes), but Kim was prepared with rain ponchos. My wife and son loved it, and I really was left embarrassed as to why I had not done this sort of trip before. My wife and I would like to go in the spring and see what difference the time of year would make on the journey. We will be taking this tour again. Oh, and the excursion is 3-hours, but flew by fast. We had a blast! read more

The Atchafalaya Experience - A local resident. - Tours Near Me

If you are from out of town and think that a long boat ride full of stories in a "funny accent" is worth the price they are charging, then by all means, book this tour. But if you expect to see the swamp and its inhabitants, don't bother. We were "treated" to a four hour boat ride that included about 10 minutes of "great trees." For three hours, we heard about all the rich, famous people who use this company to take pictures -- and we sat in the boat while the tour operator talked to his friends (on our time). This was supposed to be part of the tour -- to hear Cajuns talk! Wow. When I suggested to the person who called after the fact (to get my credit card number again!) that this was disappointing, he said "look on line -- everyone else thinks Kim walks on water!" That's not my idea of customer service. Extremely disappointing. The only alligator we saw was one I spotted! Tour guides who take your money should be able to get you to known alligator habitat/nests. If they can't then they aren't doing their homework. My search for the best swamp tour continues. This one didn't live up to the hype. [Note: the day we went on tour, the water in the basin was at an all-time low. Instead of saying "sorry, we can't do this tour because we can't actually access the swamp" they took our money and drove us around areas outside the swamp. Imagine any other business doing this.] read more