Bienvenue! When you stay at Comfort Inn, Lafayette, you'll be welcomed to Cajun Country, the heart of French culture in Louisiana. Here you'll develop a taste for jambalaya and for life itself - a joie de vivre - that'll make you want to stay forever. Lafayette is known as "the capital of French Louisiana" and Saturday night will find locals dancing the two-step at the fais-do-do. Wherever you go in Cajun Country, you can fill up on gumbo, etouffee, and corn macque choux. Whether you are traveling to the area for business, attending a game at UL Lafayette, or coming to town for one of our many festivals, Comfort Inn, Lafayette is the place to stay!
Vermilionville
Take a self-guided tour of Vermilionville and explore the Cajun and Creole Culture. This 23-acre living history museum authentically portrays life in the Acadiana area between 1765 and 1890. The grounds include 18 structures, including six restored original homes. In most of the structures, costumed interpreters demonstrate traditional crafts or musical styles. Vermilionville is located on the banks of the Bayou Vermilion and is only 1.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Acadian Village
Take a step back in time and visit Acadian Village. This collection of authentic Acadian homes, complete with period furnishings, dates back to 1800. It is located just 8.3 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette. The village includes a General Store, chapel, blacksmith shop and several homes.
Alexandre Mouton House / Lafayette Museum
This lovely museum is a repository of history and culture of Acadiana. Jean Mouton originally built it in 1800. His family lived on their plantation in Carencro, using this house once a week on Sunday when they came to town for church and socializing. The second and third floors and cupola were added in 1849. It is located on Lafayette Street just 1.7 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette hotel.
The Cajundome and Convention Center
The Cajundome is the home of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin Cajuns Basketball team and the ECHL IceGators Ice Hockey team. It averages about 140 events per year including about 10 to 15 concerts with such performers as Cher, Toby Keith, The Eagles, Shania Twain, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Billy Joel, George Strait, 3 Doors Down, Eddie Murphy, Backstreet Boys, Disney's World On Ice, WWE, Sesame Street, Clear Channel Motor Sports, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and NSYNC. It is located just 3.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette. If you're attending a convention in the Lafayette area you are in luck: friendly people, lively festivals, world -renowned music, great cuisine and now a brand new $16.7 million state of the art convention center. Logistically, the Cajundome and Convention Center are an ideal choice since all meetings can be held in one location. The Convention Center offers nearly 100,000 square feet on two levels. The Convention Center is located about 3.5 miles from the Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Pelican Park
Located in Carencro, Louisiana and otherwise known as the "softball capital of the world" (at least in our part of the world), Pelican Park is just 15 minutes from Comfort Inn, Lafayette. Pelican Park is a multi-million dollar complex that offers a country club feel for both the players and spectators. In 2004, it will host the Youth World Tournament and the Corporate World Tournament.
Tabasco Factory and Avery Island
For 128 years, the McIlhenny family has used a secret recipe to make Tabasco pepper sauce on tiny Avery Island in the bayous of Louisiana. Edmund McIlhenny returned to his Avery Island plantation after the Civil War to find that not much had survived. The salt works on this Gulf Coast Island were inoperable and the sugarcane fields had been destroyed. But Mr. McIlhenny was delighted to find that the special red peppers he had planted in his garden before the war had miraculously survived. He began to experiment with making pepper sauce, and eventually hit upon a formula that worked by crushing the ripest, reddest peppers, mixing half a cup of local salt with each gallon, then aging the mixture in crockery jars for thirty days. He added fine French wine vinegar, and aged the sauce for another thirty days before straining and bottling it. He chose a Central American Indian name for the product, "Tabasco", and shipped the first batch of 350 bottles in 1868. The hot sauce took off like wildfire, and orders came in faster than they could be filled. Tabasco has since become the definitive seasoning sauce, offering people around the world a taste of south Louisiana. The company celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1993, and it continues to be one of the truly American food products. The Avery Island Tabasco plant is located 23.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette. Visitors can tour the factory (bottling and packing operations only); see capsicum pepper plants in the fields and sample new products like garlic and jalapeno pepper sauces.
Mulate's Cajun Restaurant
For good food, good music and good fun you'll want to visit Mulate's Cajun Restaurant. Located in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Mulate's is legendary throughout the world as the King of Cajun Dining and Dance Halls. Cajun music, dancing and some of the best food you'll ever eat are served up daily. Mulate's gives visitors a chance to experience the best of Cajun culture and has appeared in hundreds of features and documentaries throughout the world, as well as in hundreds of consumer and trade media reports. Mulate's Cajun Restaurant is located in Breaux Bridge just 10.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Randol's Cajun Restaurant
If Cajun food and dancing are on your mind then you won't want to miss Randol's Cajun Restaurant. Located just 5.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette the spirit of Randol's is rooted deep in Cajun culture. Everything is fresh. Randol's grows their own herbs, raises their own crawfish & crabs and has everything else delivered daily. Can you taste the Crawfish Etouffee yet? If food nourishes the body, then good times and good friends nourish the soul. No one is a stranger at Randol's once the fiddle starts playing. The Cajun and Zydeco musicians who play at Randol's are some of Acadiana's finest, and are part of the spirit that keeps this vital culture alive and flourishing.
Zoo of Acadiana
Hear the lions ROAR! Creep through the trails and see some awesome sights. You can even feed the alligators and pet the barnyard animals. Special group rates are available. The Zoo of Acadiana is located on Highway 90 East in Broussard less than 10 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Acadiana Mall
If shopping is on your agenda then Acadiana Mall is the place to do it. Located just 15 minutes from Comfort Inn, Lafayette, Acadiana Mall features anchor stores Foley's, Sears, Dillards and JC Penney and such specialty stores as Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, Abercrombie and Fitch, GAP and American Eagle for a total of 120 stores and 11 eateries. The mall is open Monday through Saturday from 10AM to 9PM and Sunday from Noon to 6PM.
Lafayette Regional Airport
From its humble beginning, as a wooden hangar, Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT) has grown into a state-of-the art facility, providing top-notch service to area travelers and businesses. Lafayette Regional Airport offers frequent flights to four hub airports: Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX; Memphis, TN; and Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. With these frequent flights travelers can conveniently connect to hundreds of domestic and international flights. Currently, service is offered through Delta, Continental and Northwest Airlines. The Lafayette Regional Airport is located less than 1.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette and shuttle service to and from is provided for our guests with advance notice.
Travel in the State of Louisiana
For more about our area, Cajun Country, and the four other regions of the great state of Louisiana, you'll want to visit this website. You can pull up specials and take a tour of other areas you might want to visit while in our area.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette is proud to be the home of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. UL Lafayette is one of 20 "Cool Schools" in the nation featured in Careers and Colleges magazine . It is also included in the first edition of The Best Southeastern Colleges, 100 Great Schools to Consider , published by The Princeton Review. UL Lafayette is one of the most affordable universities in the nation, thanks to comprehensive scholarship and financial aid programs, including out-of-state fee waivers to qualified students. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is located 2 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Festival International
Festival International de Louisiane is truly a community event. The annual 5-day festival is held each year during the last full week of April. Historic downtown Lafayette, Louisiana, is transformed into an entertainment complex featuring five music stages, food court areas, street musicians and animators, arts and crafts boutiques, art galleries, beverage stands, cultural workshops, international cooking demonstrations and a world music store.
All programming for the festival is designed to celebrate cultural expression in a variety of forms and to encourage understanding and appreciation for different cultures. Festival International events are free to the public and designed to encourage family participation from all sectors of the community. The largest outdoor, FREE Francophone event in the U.S., the Festival places special emphasis on highlighting the connections between Acadiana and the Francophone world. Each year performing, visual and culinary artists from Europe, Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and the Americas are invited to share their talents with Louisiana artists, residents and visitors. Festival International is located in downtown Lafayette and is just 1.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Crawfish Festival
If you like crawfish, don't miss this one of a kind festival that has been featured in Southern Living, National Geographic, The New York Times, and Better Homes and Garden publications. In addition, the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival was recently named a top 10 Food Festival by USA Today. The festival is held in Parc Hardy in Breaux Bridge just 10.5 miles from Comfort Inn, Lafayette.
Festivals Acadiens
Celebrate the rhythem of Cajun life at Festivals Acadiens, held each year the third weekend of September in Lafayette, the heart of French Louisiana. Dance to a traditional Cajun waltz. Two-step to the upbeat rhythems of accordions, fiddles and ti fers (triangles). Step back in time as traditional crafters demonstrate their artistry. Festivals Acadiens pays tribute to the Cajun culture with a combination of festivals.
