Things to do in Baton Rouge

Landmark · Downtown, north end

The tallest state capitol building in the United States at 34 storeys, built in 1932 at Huey Long's insistence, with the observation deck open to the public.

Local tip: The deck is free and gives you the whole river bend, the refinery and the LSU campus in one view. Ask a guide to show you the bullet marks in the marble of the first-floor corridor, where Long was shot in 1935.

Landmark · South Baton Rouge, along the river

A 2,000-acre Italian Renaissance campus of live oaks and red-tiled roofs, with a stadium that holds more people than the city of Baker.

Local tip: Walk the Quad and the Indian Mounds — two prehistoric earthworks on the campus that are among the oldest man-made structures in North America. Then look at the home schedule before you plan any autumn Saturday, because the traffic is not optional.

Culture · Downtown riverfront

A Fletcher-class destroyer moored on the Mississippi and preserved in her 1945 configuration, sitting in a cradle that lets the river rise and fall around her.

Local tip: Go at low water, when the ship sits down in the dock and you can see the whole hull. The below-decks tour is unrestored in the best way — it is not a museum ship dressed for visitors.

Nature · Bluebonnet Boulevard, south-east

103 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp, hardwood forest and boardwalk in the middle of a suburban commercial corridor.

Local tip: Go early on a weekday for the birds, and go after rain to see how the swamp actually works. It is the cheapest way to understand what the land under this city does with water.

Neighborhood · Immediately around downtown

The two oldest surviving neighbourhoods in the city — Spanish Town laid out in 1805, Beauregard Town in 1806 — of small cottages, shotgun houses and enormous oaks.

Local tip: Spanish Town's Mardi Gras parade is the region's satirical one and takes over the whole neighbourhood; the theme is announced months ahead and it is genuinely rude. Otherwise it is the best short walk in the city.

Culture · Essen Lane, off I-10

An outdoor museum of relocated 18th and 19th-century Louisiana vernacular buildings — a working plantation's slave cabins, an overseer's house, a country church, a blacksmith's — set in gardens.

Local tip: Almost nobody outside Baton Rouge knows this is here, which is a shame, because the vernacular buildings tell you more about how this state was actually built than any grand house does.