If You Go: Festival Internationale de Louisiane

Tips for festival-goers: Tiny Lafayette Regional Airport serves only a few airlines, requiring a stop in Houston or Dallas. But good interstates make Lafayette a long and hard but possible drive from much of the South and Southwest. Festival Preview has never heard of anyone camping out for this event—not the best idea in alligator country. The local motels, most on the borderline seedy Evangeline Throughway, are cheap and plentiful. You do need a car to get around, but you can use it to visit local tourist attractions such as the Evangeline Oak (so you can say you did it), the McIlhenny plant where Tabasco sauce comes from (underwhelming but the grounds are nice) and dozens of alligators lounging, yawning and occasionally munching on nutria at Lake Martin in the Cypress Island Preserve (awesome).

Preview: Festival Internationale de Louisiane