de la houssaye's swamp tours

This guy was extremely rude!!! I don't see how he stays open because his customer relations skills suck! I was appalled at how rude he was!

Just a couple of simple points. First, I didn't pay to hear his political rants. Whether I agree with his views or not, it is irrelevant. It was supposed to be a swamp tour, not some ignorant political rants. Second, he really was rude answering questions. Third, he scared every single animal we saw. It is hard to believe but he actually rammed his boat into logs on which alligators rested, yelling about "stinking alligators" and setting his two dogs on them. Between his yelling and the dogs barking that was hardly a peaceful and tranquil swamp experience it should have been. This part was really bizarre to a point o making me uncomfortable about letting such a person drive a boat I was in. As a boater Myself, I can see that he violated multiple safety rules. Fourth, I got very tired of him repeating how great of a tour guide he was, how everybody else was doing just everything else wrong.If there is any sort of board that certifies tour guides in the area, they should revoke his license. I've been on many different swamp tours and some were wonderful, led by guides that genuinely loved nature and cared about Louisiana swamps. This tour was the most disturbing and bizzare experience I ever had. Ok, you've been warned.Otherwise, Lake Martin is a beautiful, enchanted area and you should see it if you have a chance. Just choose a real tour guide.

While waiting for our tour to begin through Cajun Country Swamp Tours ( Highly recommend ), we witnessed Mr. de la Houssaye beat one of his two dogs at the put-in. Many other tourists witnessed this disturbing event. As we concluded our tour, Mr. de la Houssaye's boat pulled in just after us. To our surprise, 4-5 Sheriff vehicles were at the take out waiting for him. He was handcuffed and taken away for ANIMAL ABUSE after a minor scuffle. Justice served !! Avoid this animal and DO NOT PATRONIZE HIS OUTFIT.

Well, even the bad reviews had me smiling. Off course, if you are looking for the Ritz Carlton Hotel Kinda Swamp Tour man, you are not at the right place. But if you want to experience the real deal, then I would 100% recommand DelaHoussaye Swamp tour. I did contact Marcus by email first at the end of 2005, for a trip planed in may 2006. He was generous of his information and knowledge and gave me good advices and recommandation as where to stay. I contacted him several time, he was always courteous. Businesslike, a little rough on the edge but courteous. The exact swamp tour man I was expecting. As I was traveling alone he offered me to communicate with him when I was to reach Lafayette. Over the months, keeping contact et developing a connection with the man, Mr Delahoussaye even offers me his help if I needed to go to the grocery store! And I thought Southern Hospitality was just amazing. The day of the tour, we were 5 or 6 on board including his nice daugther + Bob the dog and everything for me was perfect. I thought the man was very interesting, had a lot of knowledge, was generously sharing it and was also spiritual. When we met on the spot, in the morning, first thing he needed to do was to.... go for a number two, in the bushes. No toilet paper roll, the guy Grabbed a Brown paper bag. Oh well I thought, one's got to do what he's got to do right? At least I knew that with someone like that, we wouldn't get stuck anywhere. :) What I really enjoy was the size of the boat that allowed us to go in between cypress trees and in little spots any other boat can't take you. I felt I was in a living cathedrale. I thought all of this was simply perfect. I still think it. I am not surprised though by some of the comment. But sometimes, we can be very prompt to judge someone on the appearance. But anybody that will stop and take the time can only appreciate. I would go back on Delahoussaye Swamp tour anytime!Michèle from Montréal

Called this swamp tour to get a reservation. The guy who answered the phone was not only rude, but said it wasn't worth his time running a tour for only two people. When I tried to ask him questions, he simply talked over me, not listening to me at all. Finally, he just hung up on me. This guy apparently doesn't need any customers.

It all started in Portland Oregon when I booked our tour two weeks in advance. It all sounded so great. However, he forgot to write down the day we had prearranged and called a week early, leaving a message that said " no worries, I think you're actually coming next week?....."yes we were."The day of our tour we were 45 minutes ahead of schedule, prepared to provide him lunch (suckers are us), when he calls us and was very agitated that we missed his call. We were on the road and out of cell service. He wanted us to know that HE was changing the prearranged time. Really? Ok then I guess we'll wait for two hours. Even though we were on our way to another destination. After a two hour wait and while standing near the lake we got ahold of him. It took several calls before he answered and I thought he was agitated before....ha! The only thing he said was "you missed my call, and I'm not going out! Then he hung up on me. I'm a nice girl. I don't speak to people that way. And it is very rare and unexpected when someone treats me like that.Needless to say, the day was salvaged by CHAMPAGNE CAJUN SWAMP TOURS! They are an actual legitimate business in the parking lot. They treated us with kindness and I would highly recommend them for your tour of Lake Martin. It was great. He was not. Do not be mistaken, I do not represent CHAMPAGNE CAJUN SWAMP TOURS. Marcus de la Houssay left us for hours in the parking lot and then never showed. We just got lucky there was another tour available. And for the same price( with no dogs, read his other reviews). Good luck. Hope you get lucky too.

We took Mr. de la Houssaye's tour about a year ago and it was excellent. This year we decided to treat our 12 year old granddaughter to a mini spring break to New Orleans and on the return to San Antonio we had scheduled a swamp tour, again with Mr. de la Houssaye. The majority of our time in the swamp was centered around his complaints and his views on the politics in Louisiana, ad nauseum. The other group in the boat said they would have gotten out of the boat in the middle of the swamp if only they were able to walk out. Needless to say, our granddaughter learned absolutely nothing about the swamp other than we saw a few alligators. That's the end of our association with Mr. de la Houssaye.

I've read all of the reviews, and actually there is probably a grain of truth in the bad ones. I found it interesting that the were ZERO four star reviews. Well, I'm giving him four stars. To me, a five star rating suggests that there is almost no room for improvement and that the experience was almost perfect. Hard to imagine that here. However, it was a good tour, especially for the money, and we're glad we went. DLH gave us a good two hour tour which was very entertaining and informative. Yes, he did pontificate on the government and private industry screwing up the environment, apparently with a profit motive in mind. It was actually pretty interesting and we just listened to what he had to say and didn't particularly engage him on this.There has been much talk about the boat. The boat was solid and the engine was OK, at least the day we went out. The boards holding the seats sagged a little bit, but the seats themselves were fine. They are of a pretty stock variety virtually identical to the one I have on my boat, only these swivel.DLH brought his five dogs with him on this trip. They were well behaved and we rather enjoyed them. I could easily see where someone might see this as a negative.He can be a little curt/abrasive. I guess this is just who he is and I didn't let it bother me. He seemed very knowledgeable about all aspects of the tour and we felt we got our money's worth. Speaking of money, his published price for a two hour tour is $20, $10 for seniors. This would have meant our cost would be $30 for two hours work. I would have been embarrassed to pay that. We gave him $50 and he seemed satisfied.

It was hilarious.De La Houssay talks A LOT and if you would like a lesson in environmental regulation and state rights, then he will give you one. The boat was not the best, the seats were dilapidated, there was a dog on the boat and it was smelly.

Lake Martin is beautiful. However if you pay for a tour you should be able to ask a question without getting the answer in a smart remark. His personality wasn't great at all. However if you would like a lesson in Ecology go for it, because you will get one. We saw one Gator while on his tour, we drove around Lake Martin and say 12 some were big too. Oh and the boat was awful, chairs broke, boards swaying hole in the floor. I do not recommend this tour guide at all.

It looks like this guy has never bothered to upgrade his broken down seats and raggedy plywood flooring in boat for his many customers in the "25 years" he's been touring. He takes his stinky dirty dog on the boat and only pretends to do anything to curb its walking back and forth, slobbering on people and rubbing against them. The swamp area he covers is VERY small. A 2 hour tour consists of constant boat motor break downs, with him spraying gas on customers as he pulls the rope to start it. He talks non stop for the entire 2 hours making it impossible to enjoy the area as he talks on and on about himself. Don't bother to ask a question; he is too busy talking to allow anyone to talk. Drive for 10 minutes, park the boat and yak, yak, yak for 15 minutes, then repeat in another location a stone's throw away. If you want to take a tour of de la Houssaye, rather than the swamp, then take this tour. IF you want a real tour of the swamp, please go somewhere else! There are so many nice tours in Louisiana. Skip this guy.

Honestly, I can not understand the bad reviews written here. Marcus de la Houssay is a hotshot and Lake Martin is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We got pretty good advices for our stay in the area from him, its was always easy talking on the phone to fix a date for the Tour and he offers help for Problems. You really can talk about everything with this guy and I think he is very fair minded. His Dogs are notably well behaved by the way, so dont worry about the fact that a dog will be around even if you're with children who are actually scared of dogs.

First of all, after doing 2 early morning tours in the cool of the day, I decided to override my common sense, and indulged these people at 1PM in 95' temps, in the middle of July. Second, after 4 other people and her elderly father had the common sense to NOT do the tour because of the heat, I commented that I have to stop doing tours in the middle of the day due to the heat, because people can't take it. That is not a gripe session, it is one sentence, and it is stating common sense. Then she insinuates that there were no life jackets offered, and I snapped at them to put the kid in a life jacket and sit down. That is a lie! Actually, the child had the life jacket on before even getting into my boat, and I noted that the full body vested life preserver was going to be too hot in 95' temps. The parents both ignored my offer of a cooler vest! After we arrived at the alligator nest and visited the momma gator, this woman suggested that the female alligator urinates on her eggs to incubate them, I corrected her on that, advising that the nest is an incubator of decomposing plants which produces heat, and because alligators are cold blooded, her urine is not warm like ours. I guess first grade teachers don't like being corrected? I suppose she is also OK observing the destruction of the natural beauty of the plants in the swamp and I am not, and because plant control had just come out and sprayed herbicides everywhere I do tours, I WAS pissed! I also suggested that my ancestors have been fighting terrorism since 1492. So if I made comments about other cultures(white people?), as she suggested, as a native American, I have that right! Toward the end of the tour, the little girl in the life preserver was about to faint from heat stroke, so I suggested that they remove the preserver, and wet the girls skin on the arms and legs, and I turned the boat into the wind to cool the girl off. I went out of my way to tour them at 1PM in the heat of the day, so they could stay on schedule and do a tour for their children who are fans of Swamp People. At this time of year, I do sunset and sunrise tours, because it is cool, and pleasant, and I make my best effort to do quality tours. I went out of my way to serve these people in the heat of the day, not for the money, but for the convienence of THEIR schedule. I also took good care of them, and rendered first aid when her daughter was suffering from heat stroke due to an inappropriate life vest. And the bottomline: almost everyone was delighted with the tour, especially the kids who enjoyed the show I put on with the momma alligator. In fact almost everyone enjoyed the tour so much, her husband gave me a generous tip. Apparently this first grade teacher who made numerous misleading insinuations and false accusations against me, AND accused ME of being in a bad mood, needs an attitude adjustment.

I am giving this swamp tour a poor, instead of terrible only because Marcus de la Houssaye gave me good info (on the phone) about the beautiful Lake Martin. Having never been there I was very pleased with this easily accessible treasure. There is a rookery (bird sanctuary) there where I saw amazing pink spoonbills, albeit not on the tour. I saw them when I got to the area early (about 6:30 A.M.) and drover down the road to the rookery. I saw many gorgeous birds and two alligators from my car! Marcus de la Houssaye was 30 min late to arrive and when he got there he was in no hurry to get going. We left about 45 min late. As an animal lover, I was not concerned that he was bringing a dog on the boat, (although the other guests were) but when he opened the very full kennel on the back of his truck, and four dogs, (including a scary pit bull mix) got on the boat I was somewhat apprehensive. My apprehension came to fruition when the odor wafted (reeked) off the animals. Not only that but he spent a lot of time talking to and about the dogs (and yelling at them). He ranted at length about the media, the government, the Sierra club, and now he will probably rant about me. He did have problems with his motor while we were out as well. Finally, I left the tour early. I have to say that I hope the other guests don't think this is the finest example of the amazing culture of the area. There are some amazing tours out there (I have been on several) with fun friendly guides that make you comfortable, share their love of the swamp with you, their Joie de vivre and leave their guests with a feeling of laissez les bons temps rouler. I hope Mr. de la Houssaye doesn't get offended by this review, but rather uses it as an opportunity to change his way of conducting tours, of the gorgeous Lake Martin.

I have no idea who this is, but it sounds like the reviewer called a wrong number and assumed it was me who yelled at them. Or considering the rave reviews written by my guests, this appears to be someone who wants to hurt me. And all I can assume is; who would want to hurt me but, a competitor. Come on this person did not even do my tour. Just look at all the kind things said of me by people who DID my tours..