Live oaks shade the pads at Bayou Segnette, with marsh at the edge of the loop and a boat launch into brackish water. The French Quarter is across the Mississippi, so the evening can be downtown and the night can be a campsite in Westwego. Stay in Westwego the whole week if the Quarter is the trip, and use the same pad you booked for night one.
Premium campsites have water and electrical hookup, reserved on the Louisiana State Parks page for Bayou Segnette.
Jean Lafitte's Barataria Preserve is a day-use swamp walk from this side of the river, boardwalk over hardwood swamp with alligators and turtles on the banks. As of September 2026 the visitor center and most trails are closed for hurricane repairs, so the walk that stays open is the Wetland Trace Boardwalk.
Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest in New Orleans
Mardi Gras falls in February or early March, when the wooded pads at Bayou Segnette fill with vans and RVs while the parades roll downtown. Jazz Fest in late April through early May does the same, stages in the city and the overnight in Westwego or on the north shore.
Festival crowds and everyday visitors are booking those same pads at Bayou Segnette, Fontainebleau, and Fairview-Riverside, so lock the site before you book the van. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan for a festival week, RV rentals in New Orleans are the size-up.
Fontainebleau and Fairview-Riverside
Sailboats work the sandy Pontchartrain shore at Fontainebleau, and the brick ruins of an 1829 sugar mill stand in the trees behind the beach. The Tammany Trace rail-trail cuts through the park in Mandeville. You can get on the Trace from the campground and ride without moving the van. Premium sites have full sewer, water, and electric, including pull-throughs, and unimproved sites in the same park have no hookups.
Fairview-Riverside is the river half of that weekend, Tchefuncte frontage under live oaks with a kayak launch and the 1880s Otis House on the water. You can paddle from the park launch. Premium and improved sites have hookups, and the unimproved ones do not.
Grand Isle State Park
Surf breaks a few steps from the pull-through pads at Grand Isle State Park, Gulf-front beach ridge on one side and birders' lagoons on the north side. Southbound drivers pay a bridge toll in cash or GeauxPass to reach the park.
The Tarpon Rodeo draws fishing crowds every July. Hurricane season from June through November can close the bridge or the park with no notice, so check the operator page before you leave. If you keep going east along the Gulf, the Mississippi Gulf Coast is the next campervan overnight.
West of New Orleans, Baton Rouge has its own campervan overnight. The Louisiana campervan page covers the rest of the state.
