Courtesy San Juan Islands VB
San Juan Islands
[ Washington ]
Four islands off the coast of Washington — San Juan Island, Orcas Island, Lopez Island and Shaw Island — make up the destination known collectively as the San Juan Islands. All of the islands are accessible from the mainland by ferry, and all offer wildlife and ecotour opportunities for groups.
“Groups love to go whale-watching,” said Deborah Hopkins Buchanan, executive director of the San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau. “The orca whales are our No. 1 attraction. We have three pods here year-round, and it’s absolutely breathtaking to see them doing their thing in nature.”
For a more active experience, groups can take a guided kayak tour through the protected waters around the island. Tours can range from three hours to three days in length. Other options include guided hiking and bicycle excursions, as well as day visits to Friday Harbor, a historic fishing village on San Juan Island.
Avery Island
[ Louisiana ]
About three miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico in Iberia Parish, Iberia Island offers visitors a distinctly Louisiana experience: This island is home to the MacIlhenny Company, the makers of Tabasco Sauce.
Visitors to the island can see the Tabasco factory and learn about the company’s history.
“Someone gives you a talk about the history of Tabasco, and there’s a 12-minute film about how the peppers are grown, bottled and aged,” said McIlhenny’s senior vice president of agriculture, Harold Osborn. “Then you walk through an enclosed area where you see the bottle line.”
The tour ends in a country store, where guests can sample imaginative foods such as Tabasco chocolate, Tabasco ice cream and Tabasco soda.
In addition to the pepper farm and hot sauce factory, the company operates an attraction called Jungle Gardens on the island. The gardens feature seasonal plantings of azaleas, camellias and bamboo, as well as deer, alligators and numerous native bird species.
