We were in Lafayette in January 2024, as part of our Tucson for Christmas trip. Read about our previous visit in 2017 here.

The drive to Lafayette from Austin is a pretty crappy six hours: all interstate, and traffic gets snarled up around Houston. BUT! We finally got to stop at a Punjabi dhaba and that made all the crap driving worth it!

Desi Dhaba in Winnie, TX is fantastic! There’s tons of parking, a spacious outdoor picnic area, cozy indoor seating, and the friendliest people. We ordered three curries to take with us for dinner that night, and samosas to snack on while there.

The samosas arrived with delicious chai tea. What a gem! We’ll be sure to stop at Desi Dhaba every time we’re driving I-10 in east Texas!

Campground

We stayed at the same KOA we stayed at last visit, just outside Lafayette in Scott. It’s a big campground centered on a pretty little lake. Our campsite was at the far side of the campground because we’d read about the road noise from the adjacent interstate, and it was quiet with good enough wifi for J to have a Zoom meeting in the morning.

Billy’s Homemade Boudin and Cracklins, a huge meat market selling Cajun specialties, is next door to the KOA. I tried to get J to go sample some goods but he wasn’t in the mood for heavy pork products. Sorry we can’t report back, readers!

Exploring Lafayette

Because of J’s meeting, Bugsy and I had a couple hours in the morning to explore Lafayette on our own. Based on our research, we were interested in:

• Cypress Lake
• Downtown for the cathedral, murals, and shops on Jefferson St
• Walking around University of Louisiana

So we headed into downtown on a weekday morning; it was totally dead, but full of cute storefronts and fun murals. Spoonbill restaurant looked neat for next visit. Jefferson was the most interesting of the downtown streets we explored, and Parc Sans Souci was a bit sketchy when nobody else was around.

We tried to park near the University but found it impossible, and we wanted to go to Cypress Lake but ran out of time while trying to find parking. Those two destinations are at the top of the list for next time we’re in Lafayette.

Food and drink

“Lafayette is said to have more restaurants per capita than any other American city,” says a Louisiana tourism website. Hmm. It didn’t feel that way to us, and it’s hard to compare food scenes when we were coming from Austin, but it’s an impressive stat if it’s true!

J did some in-depth research on the drive to Lafayette to find the best po-boy in town (I think he was trying to make up for not getting a po-boy at Turf N Surf in Austin). He chose Old Tyme Grocery based on ratings and the fact that they really specialize in po-boys, or as they call them, poor boys. Our shared oyster poor boy was enormous and scrumptious; we took it to go, but the shop’s dining area with old-school booths was sweet.

Last time in Lafayette, J had really wanted to go to Parish Brewing, but we were having too much fun with our friends downtown to venture out to the brewery in Broussard, just south of Lafayette. This time we made it a priority and J was thrilled with his IPAs and pale ale.

I had a sour flight and the flavors were nice but they were too sweet for me overall. The small taproom is dog-friendly inside, which was great for us on a rainy and extremely windy day.

Maxie’s Campground is very close to Parish and we considered staying there rather than the KOA for that reason. The KOA ultimately won out because we thought they’d have more reliable internet for J’s meeting. We may stay at Maxie’s next time and spend more time at Parish.

In the morning, we wanted to get some computer time at a nearby coffeeshop and chose Coffee Dash, a big bright space good for working. They serve bagel sandwiches and pastries, and fun espresso drinks, and the people were super nice. For next time, Coffee Depot in downtown Scott looked charming.

From Lafayette, it’s a reasonable two-hour drive to New Orleans, where we went on a quest for allllll the king cake!