Avery Island
Working Farm · Avery Island, Louisiana
Not an island but a salt dome — a plug of rock salt miles deep pushing up through the marsh of southern Louisiana, high enough to grow live oaks and bamboo on. The McIlhenny family have made Tabasco here since 1868 and still do, and the factory runs tours. The same family also made Jungle Gardens, a hundred and seventy acres of subtropical planting, and Bird City, an egret rookery that E.A. McIlhenny started in the 1890s to save snowy egrets from the plume-hunters who were shooting them to extinction for hats.
32 Avery Island Road, Avery Island, Louisiana, 70513, United States
Open daily year round, generally 9:00 to 16:00 or 17:00 with seasonal variation; closed on some major holidays. THREE SEPARATE CHARGES: a small toll to cross onto the island, admission to the Tabasco factory tour, and separate admission to Jungle Gardens — a combination ticket is sold and is the sensible buy. The Bird City rookery is active roughly February to July and is empty outside that. Jungle Gardens is driven on a loop road with pull-offs.