Insta-Gator Ranch & Hatchery

Very interesting place to visit while in New Orleans. The kids enjoyed it. Staff was friendly. Will visit again soon.

This is the most awesome southern tour I’ve ever had the pleasure of going on… and I’ve been on many.
Royce, our tour guide was hilarious and engaging. I learned so much on the educational part of the tour. For example, did you know that there are more alligators in Louisiana alone than there are in the entire word? Approximately three million to be exact. To put that in perspective Louisiana has a population of a little over four million people. Yikes!
The other parts of the tour included watching a very funny video on how they collect the eggs and bring them back to the hatchery and how they are born and raised there at the farm. We got to feed the gators and all had an opportunity to pet and hold them.
Very fun, super educational and highly recommended! Go! You won’t regret it!

I had the pleasure of attending one of the tours provided by the Insta-​Gator Ranch & Hatchery. It was interactive, informative and, of course, super fun.
The hour and a half tour consists of a range of activities; from educational lectures to catching a baby gator yourself. I believe our tour guide’s name was Joe, and he did a great job keeping our attention throughout our stay. He was charismatic, personable and cracked a lot of jokes that were genuinely funny.
«And this is a speculum. This is how you determine if it’s a boy or a girl…
… I’m going to leave that there…»
The bathrooms were spotless, and their gift shop had some really cool merchandise, including alligator belts, tooth necklaces, and actual alligator heads. Every one working there was really friendly and accommodating, so I was happy with my overall stay. If you’re ever near Covington, you must go on one of these tours.
And if you do, here are some tips to consider for the smoothest experience possible:
1. Call in advance to book your tour.
2. Show up at least a few minutes early so you can purchase your tickets, as well as purchase any additional offers.
3. Wear a short-​sleeved shirt under your jacket or sweater, especially if you’re going to be holding one of the gators.
4. This is optional but I brought hand sanitizer and moist toilettes. This came in handy after my hands were submerged in the alligator pool, and I didn’t want to grab my stuff until my hands were clean. Or you can wash your hands in the bathrooms, but it was in another building and I’m lazy. I don’t know. Whatever works for you.
Overall, this is a great activity to do with your friends or family. It’s appropriate for all ages, and it was absolutely worth the trip. 5/​5, would recommend.

I recently went back to Insta-​Gator ranch and this time, in addition to the tour, I did the egg hatching and played with baby alligators. Upon starting the tour, I was a little disappointed when I realized it was a different guide (only because the last guy was so awesome.) But it was only temporary because the guide I had was also awesome. Seriously, if you are looking for something fun/​different to do during the day, make the trip over to Covington and take a tour. It’s fun and very informative. They only do the hatching in August (mother nature and all), but it was definitely worth doing. I also picked up some accessories on this last visit… they have a small assortment of small goods in the gift shop.

My Goodness!!! This was an experience of a lifetime. The ranch is very hands-​on to the point that you could even help a baby gator break out of its shell. You truly get an appreciation for the animal and I highly recommend anyone going and enjoying this fabulous experience.

I just left the tour and it was incredible, from the tour its self to Jim the tour guide I had an awesome experience. The tour guid is very enthusiastic and a great guy along with the rest of the staff. I will definitely come back. Interesting facts & info on alligators and crocodiles. Thanks for the great experience!

Awesome for boys! Took an 11 and 7 year old and they loved it. Informative close up hands on education. We learned a lot while having fun. Tour is 1 ½ hours. Highly recommend paying the extra $ 5 for petting/​handling of 25 baby alligators in a pool. Don’t worry mouths are taped shut.

This place is really cool. When you first get there you walk in the front door see the skins or belts and wallets you can buy. They even have gator meat you can buy. They give some speeches that are really informative. Then you get to feed gators some marshmallows. Pet some gators and take a picture with one. Really cool stuff. The guys that work there are cool people. Ross is a cool guy, but be careful of another guy he will photo bomb your phone, lol.

Took the family including my 2 ½ year old son. The tour guide, Jimmy, really made the tour. He was very funny, entertaining and informative. The tour was very educational and bringing the real purpose of the ranch, conservation, of the American Alligator to light. I definitely recommend getting reservations (military and seniors get a discount) and paying for the «catch a gator» experience. We spent about 20 minutes catching small yearlings in a very safe and controlled environment. This is a far better experience than Gatorland in Florida.

This place was so much fun. You should defiantly pay the extra 5 bucks to play with the baby gators. I wouldn’t pay extra for them to take your picture, you can take your own at the end. My kids ages 4 – 8 had asmuch fun as me. Make a reservation and do it.

This place is so cool! For about fifteen bucks a person you get to go on a tour of this gator farm. It includes an educational speech and film, then a tour inside the farm (a house that has different sections for the differently aged gators) a live feeding, and a cup of food for you to give them, plus the gator wrangler will get a young gator from the pool and take it out to show you the body and how fast they are. For 5 $ you get to have a picture taken with the young gator, and another 5 $ gets you access to the itty bitty babies that you can hold and take as many pictures of as you want. It was well worth the money, in my opinion.
This is not a place with HUGE gators, so don’t expect that, and the live feeding is with mice, nothing big, so don’t expect a deer or something being thrown in there. This is a place for people who don’t mind the drive (a very nice drive of full of old plantations) and small gators. It’s great for kids and people like us, who have never been near one and wanted to learn more.
This place also sells gator meat on site, so if you are into that, you can stock up.
Also, the BEST part is that during egg hatching season you can buy an egg, go there, and hold it as it hatches. We missed that by a few months, but I would have loved to have done it.

The guide was very entertaining and I loved that I *learned* something while having a few laughs and a good time. it’s a great family spot since kids are definitely welcome and encouraged. A visit to the ranch with the tour would probably take an hour and a half to two hours of your day. The kids love to play with the baby gators it’s worth the few extra bucks to let them do the touch pool.

This place was great! Fantastic experience. The tour guide went way out of his way to make everything fun. Pay the extra money to take the picture with a 4ft alligator. We had a great time.

This is kind of expensive and a bit on the boring side. I mean, our tour guide was fairly entertaining but the tour consisted of him talking for a long long time, everyone taking turns to pet a baby gator for 2 seconds, walking through the area where the gators are kept, and then the guide talking for a long time again.
Most of the visitors brought their kids (we don’t have kids) so I felt a bit awkward. Also, it costs about $ 20/​pp and there are much better things I can do for that amount of money. We got the basic tour and the climax of the tour was when a baby mouse was tossed into the gator-​filled waters to be eaten alive. Wow, talk about graphic!

People sometimes write about wanting to give more than 5 stars, and this is one of those places that deserves it. Skip Oak Alley, the ghost tours, mardi gras world, and GO HERE! You might not need to make a reservation, but call before you go because they have set tour times and you can’t just walk in halfway through one. I never really thought alligators were very interesting, but this place will make you a believer.
It doesn’t really look like much from the outside, but you’ll learn so much about alligators and how the alligator industry really is a sustainable one. The tour guide was hilarious and he really loves his job. You’ll get to touch a couple gators on the tour, but pay the $ 5 to play with the babies!

What a fantastic tour! We got to see the gators, hold, feed and pet them! We got lots of fun pics and it was very memorable and entertaining! Would definitely recommend it for any age group!

This place is a hoot. Great for kids and adults! Entertaining and educational. The tour guide is a riot and a half.

How can anyone so eloquently describe such an awesome visit to a world-​class revival ranch of a once dwindling species that left a lifelong type of impact on everyone? For a very reasonable tour rate and an extra $ 5 to play with babies… if you are within reasonable driving distance, GO! First of all, our tour guide was engaging and well-​educated. We experienced a more intimate setting with only 4 of us and one other family (which is not always the case, but is likely during a Saints game) that began with explanations of alligators and how the ranch uses the free market instead of government funding to rehabilitate these amazing creatures and sustain a successful business. To some, the business part may seem questionable at first, but keep in mind that these tactics have allowed for one of the most successful, if not the very best, growth of a wild creature that was once hunted to the point of near extinction in the US. AND, I don’t care how stingy of a person you can be, DO THE BABY PETTING at the end. The gators are so much fun and you can ask the guide 8 million obnoxious questions which he seems delighted to answer. Every visitor to our new home will enjoy this experience and I’m sure it will be equally exciting every time.