• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

A conveyour belt carrying many mouth-burning bottles at the Tabasco plant on Avery Island.    (Photo: Getty Images)

No southern meal would be complete without a dash of Tabasco. Make a pilgrimage to Avery Island, home of the ubiquitous hot pepper sauce, about a two-hour scenic drive west of New Orleans along the coast and through marshland. Tour the factory and bottling plant, and stock up on hot-sauce supplies. Walk or drive through Jungle Gardens, the former estate of Tabasco’s founding family that is now 250 acres of wildlife preserve loaded with alligators and dripping with Spanish moss. On the way home, slurp a dozen oysters for $6.75 at Shucks in the nearby Cajun town of Abbeville.

Published on Nov 6, 2008 as a web exclusive.