Diverse, welcoming, and full of fun, Shreveport-Bossier is home to a wide variety of events, attractions, and cultural sites. Try your luck at a casino-resort, spend the day at a museum, and take the kids to one of the most dynamic science museums in the country. You’ll be blown away by the sheer number of quality activities.
Shreveport-Bossier is known for its exhilarating gaming scene with five riverfront casino hotels and the renowned Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack. This thrilling environment is the perfect place for you and Lady Luck to spin the wheel, roll the dice, place sports bets, and pick a winning horse. Combine the fun of gaming with luxe amenities that make the trip extra enjoyable. Book a spa day, relax by the pool, sink your teeth into a juicy steak, shop at onsite stores, and watch live entertainment. Each spot has its own personality, so why not try them all?
On the Bossier City side of the Red River, check out Horseshoe Hotel and Casino, Margaritaville Resort Casino, and Boomtown Resort and Casino, and on the Shreveport side, pay a visit to Bally’s Shreveport Casino and Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino. This cluster of attractions is close enough that you can bounce from one to another as you enjoy a true gaming getaway.
Enjoy the ponies? Louisiana is horse country and is home to numerous racetracks, including Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack. The facility hosts the Super Derby, one of the premier races for three-year-old horses in North America. Enjoy live quarter horse races January through March and thoroughbred races May through September. Other live races are featured on simulcast, so no matter the day there’s plenty of racing action.
Mardi Gras season across Shreveport-Bossier means several much-anticipated weeks of colorful, family friendly parades, sumptuous king cakes at local bakeries and grocery stores, and splashes of purple, green, and gold everywhere—the official colors of Carnival time. Things get started with a Twelfth Night kick-off party that marks the season’s start.
The festivities continue with seven regular parades, each with its own culture and flair. The Krewe of Sobek parade, one of the first of the season, features drill teams, floats, and bands rolling through the Queensborough neighborhood. On MLK Day, enjoy the Krewe of Harambee parade, and later, soak in Shreveport-Bossier’s important African American history at the African American History parade. Ten days before Fat Tuesday, catch the Krewe of Centaur parade, one of Louisiana’s largest Mardi Gras parades with numerous marching bands, large floats and lots of beads to catch. Pet lovers won’t want to miss the Krewe of Barkus and Meouw Parade in which fur babies get to march. The season is capped off with the fabulously festive Krewe of Gemini parade and the always zany Krewe of Highland parade, both held the weekend before Fat Tuesday. No doubt about it, Shreveport-Bossier is a great place to let the good times roll!
Culturally rich Shreveport-Bossier has many interesting museums that shine a light on the area’s fascinating heritage. Don’t miss the Louisiana State Museum of Exhibits, a one-of-a-kind experience perfect for those who enjoy both architecture and art. The building was a New Deal project completed in 1939. Its circular interior holds 23 full-scale 3D dioramas that depict pre-war life in Louisiana. From the way rice was harvested in the 1930s, to the state’s burgeoning oil industry, each diorama is a literal window into the life, culture, and economy of the Pelican State.
Art lovers won’t want to miss Artspace, an innovative, free facility that features art exhibits, poetry readings, artisanal jewelry and crafts handmade by locals, and concerts. If you’re the kind of Monopoly player who always buys utilities and railroads, don’t miss the Shreveport Water Works Museum, home to the city’s rare intact steam-powered water works, the last of its kind in the U.S. to remain in use until it was retired in 1980. Within the space, you can also visit the Shreveport Railroad Museum for a glimpse of the city’s railroad history since 1860.
Shreveport-Bossier is known for its family-friendly vibe. The renown Sci-Port Discovery Center puts curious minds in the center of the action with 92,000 square feet of interactive STEM exhibits, a planetarium, and Louisiana’s only IMAX Dome Theatre. More than 200 hands-on experiences will make kids say ‘wow’ and keep them coming back for more. Sci-Port’s recently upgraded IMAX Dome Theatre delivers a totally immersive viewer experience with amazing acoustics and a screen that’s three stories high. Don’t miss the Gallery of Intrigue, an open air “escape room” with history-related riddles and puzzles just waiting to be solved.
Young people will also love a trip to the underwater world of wonder at the Shreveport Aquarium downtown. See 300 species and 1,000 animals, including sharks, rays, jellyfish, turtles, alligators, sea anemone, and much more. Watch animal feeding, and even touch a few, too! Hunt for your own fossils, sharks’ teeth, and gemstones in the aquarium’s 35-foot-long sluice by using the old miner’s techniques of sifting and washing. As you move through the exhibits, see if you can spot a whitetip reef shark, moon jelly, and albino snapping turtle.
Need some fresh air? Take the family to Gator and Friends Adventure Park for a ziplining, go-carts, and an exotic animal petting zoo all in one place. Soar over the park, including the exotic animals, on a zipline—an amazing way to catch both thrills and views. In the exotic animal zoo, see lemurs, alligators, emu, fallow deer, kangaroos, and other creatures.
