This tour is a great opportunity to spend a few extra days in New Orleans. If you come early you can enjoy The French Quarter Festival which is Thursday 12 April through Sunday 15 April * then move on to see some remote lighthouses as well as several that have been restored or moved in recent years. So, escape the snow and gloom of winter and head to the Big Easy, Bourbon Street and the sand and sun of Florida in April for a lighthouse trip that promises to be “tres bien”.

Our comprehensive tour of 20 Gulf Coast lighthouses begins with our welcome dinner in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Our first full day will be a real adventure as we cruise out of Venice passing the remote lighthouses of the Mississippi bird-foot delta. After spending a second night in the French Quarter we will depart for the Port Pontchartrain and the completely restored New Canal Lighthouse before crossing the longest bridge in the world over water, the Lake Pontchartrain causeway. Following our visit to the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum we will head east into Mississippi and Alabama. The Round Island Lighthouse in Pascagoula has been restored and it is always interesting to climb the only lighthouse in the country that stands in the middle of a four-lane highway (Biloxi Lighthouse). Boats will be required to reach Middle Bay and Sand Island in Alabama. Our trip out to Middle Bay, one of only two screw pile lighthouses in the county in its original location, will be aboard the Official Tall Ship of Alabama the Joshua, a 72-foot gaff rigged sailing schooner. Continuing along Florida’s coast, stops will be made at lighthouses at Pensacola, St. Joseph Point (now with a lantern room), Cape St. George, Crooked River and the recently moved Cape San Blas Lighthouses. An early start the next day takes us to the St Marks Lighthouse and then by boat out to view and tour Cedar Key lighthouse. Our final day begins with a boat trip to tour and climb Anclote Key lighthouse at Tarpon Springs.

To recap we will visit and see a total of nineteen lighthouses, tour and climb ten, two of which the U.S. Lighthouse Society has not in the past been able to climb. Visit three museums, eat lunch on the USS Alabama and we’re going on six boat rides. To accomplish this, we will have traveled in four states, stayed at hotels in New Orleans, LA; Biloxi, MS; Mobile, AL; Pensacola, FL; Panama City, FL; Crawfordville, FL; Cedar Key, FL and ending in Tarpon Springs, FL.

Note: This tour begins in New Orleans, LA and ends in Tarpon Springs, FL

* If you want to enjoy this unique “non-Mardi Gras” event you will be on your own until the Gulf Coast Lighthouse tour begins on Monday 16 April 2018. If you come to this festival, we would advise you to book a hotel early.