# Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way

A 3-day, ~430-mile Southern road trip from Houston. It chains US 90: Rice & Rails and Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie.

- **Days:** 3
- **Distance:** ~430 mi
- **Starts in:** Houston
- **Themes:** Food, Music, Outdoors
- **Routes chained:** [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west), [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)

Leave I-10 at the Sabine and take the Old Spanish Trail through rice country and Acadiana: boudin at gas stations, a Saturday accordion jam, Tabasco's island, the Teche, and the back way into New Orleans.

## Why this itinerary works

Starting in Houston, this 3-day itinerary connects US 90: Rice & Rails and Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie. It suits travellers interested in parks, coast, mountains & water; barbecue, boudin, oysters & tamales; blues, country, jukes & jamborees. The day-by-day bases let you split roughly 430 miles into a sequence of visits rather than trying to cover every linked route end to end. Use the daily highlights to decide which places deserve your longest stops.

## Day by day

### Day 1: Houston → Lafayette

The interstate only as far as Orange, then old US 90 east — US 90: Rice & Rails driven backward, Texas line to Lafayette. Lake Charles's Charpentier District, Jennings and the state's first oil well, Crowley's rice mills and opera house, Rayne's frog murals, and boudin from a gas-station counter in Scott, which is where the good boudin is. Overnight Lafayette.

Highlights to consider:

- **Charpentier District** (Lake Charles) — Forty blocks of carpenter-built Victorians — no architects, every builder improvising, hence the name ('carpenter' in French). The Mardi Gras museum keeps the Gulf's biggest costume collection. [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)
- **The Boudin Capital** (Scott) — Officially 'Boudin Capital of the World' by legislative resolution (2012). Best Stop and Billy's sit 500 yards apart — eat both, vote with a second helping. Boudin is breakfast here. [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)
- **Frog Capital of the World** (Rayne) — Frog murals on every wall, a frog festival each spring, and a cemetery famously (per Ripley's) facing the wrong way — north-south instead of east-west. The frogs once shipped to restaurants worldwide; the murals stayed. [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west)
- **Vermilionville & Borden's** (Lafayette) — A living Acadian-Creole village with Sunday jams, the Blue Moon Saloon's porch dancehall — and Borden's (1940), the last old-line Borden's ice cream parlor anywhere. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Breaux Bridge** (Breaux Bridge) — Crawfish Capital of the World (legislature again, 1959). The Saturday zydeco breakfast tradition lives at Buck & Johnny's — dancing before 10 a.m. is not optional. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)

### Day 2: Lafayette → New Iberia via Eunice

West to Eunice first if it is Saturday: the morning accordion jam at the Savoy Music Center, with the Liberty Theater's show that night if you want to stay for it. Opelousas, then the Teche country, running Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie the opposite way from the atlas: Breaux Bridge, St. Martinville's Evangeline Oak, Avery Island's pepper mash and Jungle Gardens, and New Iberia's Shadows-on-the-Teche. Overnight New Iberia.

Highlights to consider:

- **Liberty Theater** (Eunice) — 'Rendez-vous des Cajuns' — the Cajun Grand Ole Opry — broadcasts live most Saturday nights from this 1924 movie palace. Two-stepping in the aisles encouraged. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Savoy Music Center** (Eunice) — Marc Savoy's accordion workshop hosts a Saturday-morning Cajun jam among the instruments. Bring boudin to share, sit quietly, witness. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Breaux Bridge** (Breaux Bridge) — Crawfish Capital of the World (legislature again, 1959). The Saturday zydeco breakfast tradition lives at Buck & Johnny's — dancing before 10 a.m. is not optional. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Evangeline Oak** (St. Martinville) — Where Longfellow's exiled Acadian lovers were said to part. The Acadian Memorial next door names the real deportees of the Grand Dérangement — the sadness under all the romance. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Avery Island** (Avery Island) — Tabasco has aged on this salt dome since 1868. Jungle Gardens shelters a snowy-egret city and a centuries-old Buddha in a glass pagoda — the McIlhennys were eccentric in the best way. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)

### Day 3: New Iberia → New Orleans

Old 90 through the sugar towns to Morgan City, where shrimp and petroleum share a festival, then Houma and Thibodaux and a stretch of Bayou Lafourche, the hundred-mile street with boats parked out front. Into New Orleans on the old highway over the river, with the city arriving by increments instead of all at once.

Highlights to consider:

- **Morgan City** (Morgan City) — The first Tarzan film (1917) was shot in these swamps. Tour 'Mr. Charlie,' the first transportable offshore rig, then note the festival name: Shrimp & Petroleum, since 1936. Only here. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **LeJeune's Bakery** (Jeanerette) — French bread from the same recipe since 1884. When the red light by the door is lit, hot bread is coming out — pull over immediately. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Franklin's Main Street** (Franklin) — Six blocks of oak canopy, iron lampposts and 400-odd historic buildings — the sugar boom frozen mid-stride. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Laurel Valley Village** (Thibodaux) — The largest surviving 19th-century sugar plantation complex in the country — rows of weathered cypress quarters along the cane. Thibodaux also carries the memory of the 1887 massacre of striking Black cane workers; the general store museum is the keeper of all of it. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)
- **Swamp tour country** (Houma) — Family outfits run flat-boats into the Terrebonne wetlands — gators, Spanish moss, and guides whose accents are the real attraction. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor)

## Practical planning

Budget an average of about 143 miles per day across the whole trip, or roughly 3.2–4.8 hours behind the wheel at an assumed 30–45 mph back-roads pace. This is a planning estimate, not a measured time for each leg: transfer days can be longer and rest days shorter. Add meal stops, tours, ferries, traffic and hikes separately; use each day's navigation link for current driving estimates.

### Overnight bases

- Day 1: Lafayette
- Day 2: New Iberia
- Day 3: New Iberia → New Orleans

### Best season & route notes

- [US 90: Rice & Rails](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/ost-west): Time it: Rayne Frog Festival (May), Crowley Rice Festival (October).
- [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor): Hurricane-season summer is steamy — festival season (spring/fall) is the move.

## Frequently asked questions
### How many days and miles is Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way?

Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way is a 3-day trip of about 430 miles.

### Where does Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way start?

It starts in Houston.

### Which routes does Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way chain together?

It chains US 90: Rice & Rails and Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie.

### Where are the overnight bases on Houston to New Orleans the Old US 90 Way?

Day 1: Lafayette; Day 2: New Iberia; Day 3: New Iberia → New Orleans.

## Related itineraries

- [The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/red-dirt-run) — 6 days, ~900 mi
- [The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/old-spanish-trail) — 8 days, ~1000 mi
- [The Deep South Grand Circle](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/deep-south-circle) — 14 days, ~1700 mi
- [Boudin, Cracklins & Plate Lunches](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/boudin-loop) — 2 days, ~140 mi
- [The Whole Hog](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/whole-hog) — 28 days, ~4300 mi
- [The Long Way to the Opry](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/music-epic) — 21 days, ~3000 mi

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Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/houston-to-new-orleans  
Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/)  
Last updated: 2026-10-05