A Music- and Food-Filled Road Trip From Houston to New Orleans

Despite the many gripes you’ll hear about the Gulf states, few regions domestically can weave as rich a tapestry of musical and cultural creations, past and present, as Texas and Louisiana. Long established as cultural corridors through which some of the largest waves of forced and voluntary immigration occurred, this is where jazz music and Cajun cuisine were born. The five- to six-hour road trip between these Southeastern cities is one of the best ways to fully experience and appreciate the alluring sights, sounds, and tastes of the Gulf of Mexico.

Who am I: As the youngest child in a family of music-loving road hogs, I’ve spent pretty much every summer vacation of my life trekking across state lines, through national parks, and throughout the Gulf and beyond. (For context, it wasn’t until my original road trip pitch struck genuine fear into the hearts of my colleagues that I realized a 17-hour family road trip is beyond the norm. The following itinerary has been tightened, tailored, and edited to be bearable.)

On top of that, music has always been a lingering passion of mine, from childhood piano lessons and gospel choir to high school marching band and orchestra performances, pretty much everything I do has a soundtrack. Even before arriving at Thrillist as a senior editor, my professional life as a food and travel journalist has always revolved around music and festival culture, and I’ve covered everything from Brooklyn's AfroPunk to Houston’s Southern Smoke Festival. So, I’ve spent years searching concert lineups, finding afterparties, and flagging the under-the-radar hotels where live jazz musicians host their guerrilla sets.

No road trip along the Gulf Coast would be complete without a playlist that spans the region’s collage of cultures and diasporas. That means you’ll want to avoid creating a playlist that lingers too long in a single genre. As much as we all love the Watercolors station on SiriusXM or the LoFi Beats to Study/Relax to channel on YouTube, variety is the spice of life! So, give everyone in the car equal access to the sound system by making a collaborative Spotify playlist and allowing passengers to contribute before and during the drive. Need some inspiration to kick things off? Turn to the classic artistry of Germaine Bazzle, Allen Toussaint, and Louis Armstrong. For a more modern vibe, consider NPR Tiny Desk’s 2017 contest winners Tank and the Bangas, Jon Batiste, Charmaine Neville, and Cristian Scott.

Distance: 85 miles

Although many visitors to Houston try Shipley’s kolaches, the Czech pastries sold by a local doughnut shop chain that have become a staple of the region, I fail to leave the city without securing one of the city’s other baked beauties: the pan dulces baked fresh daily at Ema, the Michelin-recognized, James Beard award-winning coffee shop and restaurant in the Heights. Grab a couple, as well as an agua fresca or a horchata cold brew, and hit the road.

But you’re not going too far just yet. Head to the Buc-ee’s on Houston’s Eastside to capitalize on the A+ restrooms, score some top-tier travel snacks (don’t miss Buc-ee’s specialty Rice Krispies Treats), and fill up on gas or charge using the location’s ample space for hybrid and electric car charging.

It’s a pretty straight shot along I-10 to Beaumont, and if the H-Town traffic isn’t bad, you should make it there in under 90 minutes. Many just think of Beaumont as a pit stop on the way to New Orleans, but Texas’s 10th-largest city demands much more of your time. Make your first stop For the Record, a new and used music store, to expand your on-the-go collection of road trip tunes. Then take your own mural-themed walking tour of downtown; the city has deep reserves of artwork sure to inspire or soothe an arts and culture lover’s soul, or at least to fuel its annual Mural Festival. As a long-time fan of Rex Sterling Hamilton’s art, finally getting to see his submission to the 2025 festival, titled “Birds of Pray,” in the Beaumont Civic Center alongside other dazzling murals was a treat.

Lunch is at the Vietnamese restaurant Sweet Basil. Whether you order their hot mess fries (crispy potatoes loaded with marinated ribeye, koko sauce, spicy aioli, sesame seeds, and scallions) or go for the classic array of banh mi (sandwiches on fluffy, crusty bread filled with a meat of your choice and vegetables), the menu has plenty of modern Vietnamese and Cajun staples guaranteed to satisfy your cravings for a deeply comforting sit-down meal that doesn’t require a seatbelt.

Air-conditioned activities are your friend in Beaumont. Roll a few strikes at Star Bowling Bar and Grill, a blue-and-red-neon-washed bowling alley with themed music nights and happy-hour deals on food, equipment, and lane rentals. While you could easily fill up on Boudin balls at the bowling alley, you’ll want to try some true Texan ’que. Stop by Redbird BBQ in Port Neches (a quick, 22-minute detour from the city’s center), serving up juicy cuts of spice-crusted brisket, glossy pork ribs, a Caesar salad-skewed cole slaw, and heaping scoops of cornbread pudding. If it’s good enough to land on Texas Monthly’s annual best barbecue list, it’s sure to please your car full of hungry passengers.

Beaumont has no shortage of great music venues and honky-tonks. Check the schedules and then decide between MacKenzie’s Pub and the Roxy Event Hall and its Sawdust Saloon Social Club. Grab a beer, and don’t be afraid to dance. Everybody else is.

Distance: 264 miles

You’ve got a long drive ahead of you, so grab a couple glazed and a coffee at Happy Donuts, a beloved local chain, and hit the road. Charming as it may be, don’t let the mature tree-lined communities and larger-than-life roadside attractions keep you in Beaumont too long (although I wouldn’t judge you for stopping for a few selfies with the world’s largest functional fire hydrant).

Worth the detour:

Visit the original, Scott, Louisiana, location of the Best Stop Supermarket, a family-owned and
-operated pit stop, grocery store, and restaurant that became a nationally recognized brand for serving Cajun staples like boudin, turduckens, and cracklin’ hot to order (and frozen, if you came prepared with a cooler or want to buy a freezer bag there).

If you play your cards right, you’ll arrive in New Orleans just in time for lunch. (First, drop off your car at your hotel; this is a drinking town, after all.) The city is full of iconic delis, and one of the best is Stein’s Market and Deli in the Lower Garden District. Join the long line and politely shuffle your way to the counter to order a Muphuletta (Stein's Version), a version of the New Orleans classic that takes a flat, round loaf of bread and fills it with an olive salad and layers of mortadella, soppressata, Tuscan ham, and aged provolone. The real hidden gem here lies at the back of the store, beyond the packed tables of diners happily munching on overfilled sandwiches, beyond the coolers of sodas and broken-down cardboard boxes. Out the back door, you’ll find the beer cave, filled with hundreds of IPAs, lagers, and more from all over the world, and pretty much all of them are sold by the single bottle or can. I paired a crisp cider with my mortadella-packed sandwich, and it hit the spot.

For a pick-me-up, swing by Rook Cafe, an LGBTQ-operated coffee shop that sells local art and hosts open mic nights. While you sip your latte, get some great tips on indie and undersung acts from the very knowledgeable baristas.

Hop an Uber to the New Orleans African American Museum to explore the powerful exhibits—including a new permanent installation on Black Masking Indians and Afro surrealism. Be sure to save time to admire the Treme Heroes Mural Project, a series of commissioned murals and portraits from contemporary Black artists including Courtney “Ceaux” Buckley, Jessica “J Hand” Strahan, Charlie Vaughn Jr., and Kara Crowley. Their works honor the musical and cultural legacies of the innovators who founded and nurtured the Treme community.

When the temps subside, catch an Uber to the Spotted Cat Music Club or the Jazz Playhouse for intimate live music performances in a cozy setting. Afterward, settle into a nice dinner at the Elysian Bar, a restaurant and watering hole nestled into the award-winning Hotel Peter and Paul.

You could call it a night…but this is New Orleans! Instead, book a walking tour with Nightly Spirits to get a gripping, music history-packed tour of New Orleans that also goes out of its way to honor a handful of burial sites and crucial landmarks, like Congo Square, which has been incorporated into Louis Armstrong Park. (Full disclosure: My sister occasionally serves as a guide for their Houston tour company.) The night began in one of the city’s supposedly haunted hotel bars, Our guide, Cordelia, managed our group of rowdy and excited adults with aplomb. We visited the graves of jazz music titans, saw live jazz performances set in haunted hotel bars, and ended the night tossing back ornate glasses of absinthe at Jean Lafitte’s Old Absinthe House, one of the city’s historic absinthe bars, while chatting with the other members of our tour group who had become fast friends.

Pay your respects to the cultural titans who contributed so much to New Orleans jazz by visiting the New Orleans Musicians Tombs, a land donation from the Barbarin family dedicated to carving out a burial space for many of the city’s historic musicians to be laid to rest honorably, rather than experiencing the poverty and squalor that many lauded musicians had historically been subject to before.

Check out the Broadside NOLA, an indoor-outdoor event and performance venue in Mid-City, New Orleans, that houses two stages for live bands, two bars, and the full-service, sit-down restaurant Nikkei Izakaya.

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