Start from 34 curated places around Covington, LA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Del Porto Ristorante
A long-running contemporary Italian kitchen on East Boston Street run by husband-and-wife team David and Torre Solazzo, three-time James Beard Award nominees whose sourcing starts with local farms and Gulf fishermen. The house-made pasta is the reason to come — it changes with the season — and the wine list is thoughtfully chosen for the food rather than stacked with obvious bottles. Dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday, with a room that stays full with locals.
Gallagher's Grill
A family-run grill on South Tyler Street that has anchored the Covington dining scene for over four decades, serving USDA prime and choice steaks alongside the largest selection of fresh Gulf fish on the Northshore. The charbroiled oysters — baked in Romano cheese or finished with a citrus beurre blanc — are a local benchmark, and the room has the comfortable patina of a place people have been returning to for years.
Trails & outdoors
Tammany Trace Trail
Louisiana's premier rails-to-trails conversion runs 31 paved miles from Covington through Abita Springs, Mandeville, Lacombe, and into Slidell — flat as a board and wide enough for cyclists, runners, and inline skaters to use simultaneously without friction. The Covington trailhead at New Hampshire Street is the natural starting point, within walking distance of restaurants and a farmers market. The section from Covington toward Abita Springs passes through dense pine-hardwood forest canopy and is the most scenic stretch.
Northlake Nature Center North and South Trail Loop
A 4.4-mile loop trail through 400 acres of preserved hardwood and pine-hardwood forest on Highway 190 east of Mandeville, maintained by a local non-profit that has been protecting Northshore habitat since the 1980s. Three distinct ecosystems — hardwood bottomland, pine-hardwood upland, and swamp-pond — make it unusually rich for birdwatching, and the trails are well-maintained enough that they rarely become impassable after heavy rain. Distinctly uncrowded compared to the Tammany Trace.
Things to do
Abita Brewing Company
The first craft brewery in the Southeast, established in Abita Springs and now headquartered in a purpose-built facility just off Highway 36 with a tour operation that covers the full history of Louisiana craft beer. The tour includes samples from a rotating tap selection, and the taproom is large enough to linger in after. The original Abita Brew Pub in downtown Abita Springs (a short drive on Holly Street) is a separate experience with food and a more relaxed pub atmosphere — worth combining into a single outing.
Insta-Gator Ranch & Hatchery
A working alligator ranch on Allen Road north of Covington that runs guided educational tours allowing visitors to handle, feed, and catch alligators in a controlled setting — the only operation of its kind in the region. The guides are biologists and ranchers who know Louisiana's alligator ecology well and explain conservation context alongside the theatrical elements. The optional baby-gator catch is the part that brings families back for a second visit.
Landmarks & sights
H.J. Smith's Son General Store & Museum
A working hardware and general store on Columbia Street that has operated continuously since 1876, with a free attached museum crammed with artifacts from old Louisiana — a cypress dugout canoe, a cast-iron casket, a hand-pumped gas station pump, and tools that have not changed in a century. The staff know the history of every object and will tell you about it if you ask. Good for a rainy hour of genuinely odd local history.
Bogue Falaya Wayside Park
A compact riverside park at the south edge of downtown where the Bogue Falaya River runs wide and clear over sandy shallows — Covington's version of a city beach. A bronze statue of novelist Walker Percy, who lived here for decades, stands near the water's edge. Locals float tubes in summer, let kids wade, and launch kayaks from the grassy bank just steps from the nearest restaurant.