20 Best Things to Do in Natchez, MS

By VI Staff on January 10, 2020

Set on the Mississippi River, Natchez is a riverside city that is renowned for its beautifully restored antebellum mansions, historic house museums, cultural sites, and recreational and scenic parks. The Grand Village of the Natchez is home to a reconstructed Natchez house and three ceremonial mounds. Magnificent antebellum homes and historic house museums include the Auburn Museum & Historic Home, Magnolia Hall, Rosalie Mansion, and the William Johnson House.

1.Auburn Museum & Historic Home

The Auburn Museum & Historic Home is an antebellum mansion and National Historic Landmark in Duncan Park. Designed and built in 1812 by Levi Weeks, the building was constructed in the Greek revival order and was the first significant building in Natchez to follow an actual architectural plan. The mansion features a prominent two-story Greek portico and pedimented gable, a magnificent unsupported geometrical spiral staircase between the first and second floors, a central core, and flanking symmetrical wings. The interiors of the mansion feature several antiques and period pieces on display, and guests can explore the Auburn Museum and Historic House on guided tours and browse the gift shop.

400 Duncan Avenue, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-442-5981

2.Biscuits & Blues

Biscuits & Blues is a casual tavern set within a beautifully restored historical building that serves classic Southern fare and drinks and live entertainment. Boasting dark wood and brass accents, the charming pub-style eatery is dedicated to “hot biscuits and cool blues” and serves local takes on comfort foods, including crab-stuffed jalapenos, tiny muffuletta sandwiches, fully dressed po'boys, smoked ribs, and fried oysters. Biscuits & Blues hosts live music performances every evening and is one of Natchez’s hot spots.

3461, 315 Main St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-446-9922

3.Charboneau Distillery LLC

Located in downtown Natchez, Charboneau Distillery is a family-owned and operated micro-distillery that produces a variety of delicious rums. Set within one of the oldest buildings in Mississippi, the artisan distillery produces both dark and white runs in small oak whiskey casks, which are bottled in distinctive bottles featuring maps of the historically sugar cane growing territory along the lower Mississippi River. The Charboneau Distillery offers guided tours of the facility along with tastings of the distillery’s products.

619 Jefferson St, Natchez, MS 39120

4.Downtown Karla Brown

Downtown Karla Brown offers a variety of guided tours in and around the city of Natchez. Visitors can choose from five different tours, ranging from the Natchez History Tour, which explores antebellum homes, a trading post, a local winery, and a local eatery, to the fascinating Vicksburg Civil War Tour, which stops at the Windsor Ruins and the Emerald Mound, and a narrated tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park. Other trips include a scenic 3-day, 2-night bicycle tour along the historic Natchez Trace Parkway, a 2-hour ghostly getaway that discovers local haunts and legends, and a literary book tour of the locations mentioned in several of Greg Iles' novels.

406 Franklin St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 907-540-0001

5.Emerald Mound Site

The Emerald Mound Site is an ancient archaeological site dating back to the Plaquemine culture Mississippian period. Also known as the Selsertown site, the historic mound can be found on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton and dates back to between 1200 and 1730 AD. Covering 8 acres, measuring 770 feet by 435 feet at the base and 35 feet in height, the Emerald Mound has a flat top with two smaller secondary mounds at each end and is the second largest earthwork from the Pre-Columbian period in the country. The Emerald Mound Site is a National Historic Landmark and open to the public to explore.

Emerald Mound Rd, Natchez, MS 39120

6.Everyday Adventure

Everyday Adventure offers guided bicycle and kayak tours of Natchez as well as bicycle and kayak rentals. Guided kayak tours are offered in and around the Miss-Lou area, where visitors can explore the beautiful natural surroundings and the fauna and flora that reside within it. Kayak tours include boats, paddles, safety equipment such as life jackets, and 2 hours of guided paddle time with a local expert paddler. Guests can also rent kayaks or bicycles, which include a modern bike, a helmet, and a bike lock.

334 Main St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-392-3079

7.Fat Mama's Tamales

Fat Mama’s Tamales is a casual Mexican eatery on Canal Street in Natchez that is renowned for its homemade tamales and fresh margaritas, which are served in a bright and vibrant interior of a quaint house. Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, the family-friendly restaurant serves a range of mouthwatering Mexican fare such as homemade chili, taco salads, Mexican cornbread, casseroles, nachos and salsa, boudin, and fire-and-ice pickles. The delicious cuisine is accompanied by “knock-you-naked” margaritas, craft beers, sodas, and wine.

303 S Canal St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-442-4548

8.Grand Village of the Natchez

The Grand Village of the Natchez is a 128.1-acre site encompassing an ancient indigenous village and earthwork mounds in south Natchez. Also known as the Fatherland Site, the historic village complex dates back to about 1200 AD, when it was constructed by members of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture. The village is named after the Natchez people, who used the site in the 17th and 18th centuries and who added the historic mounds in the early 18th century. Today, the site is a National Historic Landmark and one of the top tourist attractions in Natchez with a museum that holds several artifacts excavated from the site, a reconstructed Natchez house, a picnic pavilion, and a network of nature trails.

400 Jeff Davis Blvd, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-446-6502

9.Magnolia Hall

Magnolia Hall is a beautifully restored and maintained Greek revival mansion and the last grand mansion built in downtown Natchez before the Civil War. Established in 1858 by a wealthy merchant, planter, and cotton broker, Thomas Henderson, the villa, which is also known as the Henderson-Britton House, is one of the most beautiful examples of the Greek revival style in Natchez. The estate is filled with mid-19th century antiques, mannequins portraying antebellum period life, and an exceptional collection of period costumes and vintage dolls. Magnolia Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open for guided tours throughout the week.

215 S Pearl St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-443-9065

10.Monmouth Historic Inn & Gardens

Monmouth Historic Inn & Gardens is a beautifully restored historic antebellum home on John A. Quitman Boulevard that has been transformed into a small luxury hotel. Set on 26 acres of exquisitely manicured gardens and grounds, Monmouth was built in 1818 by John Hankinson and later renovated by John A. Quitman in 1853. One of Natchez's grandest Greek revival mansions, the mansion is a National Historic Landmark and a luxury boutique hotel with 30 rooms and suites, a fine dining restaurant, and an elegant lounge. Tours of the estate and gardens are offered daily, and a gift shop is open to the public all week.

1358 John A Quitman Blvd, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-442-5852

11.Natchez Brewing Company

Natchez Brewing Company is a family-owned and operated brewery in historic downtown Natchez that produces several artisanal and craft brews. The brewery produces a rustic ale series, which include 301, Cronyism, Rascalism, and Nepotism, Revival Coffee Porter, and a Delta Shadow Black IPA, and offers tours and tastings of the facility Thursdays through Saturdays, as well as functions and events throughout the year.

207 High St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 828-713-5311

12.Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture

The Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture is a museum that highlights the history of African Americans in the southern United States. Established in 1991 by the Natchez Association for the Preservation of African American Culture (NAPAC), the museum is set within a former United States Post Office building that dates back to 1904. The museum features approximately 10,000 square feet of space that house an array of exhibits, from the incorporation of the City of Natchez in 1716 through to the present, covering slavery, the Civil War, the Reconstruction, 20th century wars and the Civil Rights Era. The museum also hosts several educational programs for visiting students.

301 Main Street, Natchez, MS 39120

13.Natchez National Historical Park

Natchez National Historical Park is a public park in Natchez that commemorates the history of the city. The park comprises three different sites, namely Fort Rosalie, the William Johnson House, and the Melrose Estate. Built by the French in the 18th century, Fort Rosalie is the site of a former fortification that was later renamed Fort Panmure and controlled by Great Britain, Spain, and finally the United States. The William Johnson House was the home of 19th century African-American barber and Natchez resident William Johnson, and the Melrose Estate is the beautifully maintained estate of a lawyer, state senator, and planter John T. McMurran, who lived in Natchez. The William Johnson House and the Melrose Estate display an array of antiques and period pieces collected from different eras, and archaeological objects found in the park are also on display.

Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi

14.Natchez Pilgrimage Tours

Natchez Pilgrimage Tour Company offers guided tours of Natchez’s top cultural and historical attractions, including historic homes, landmarks, and literary history. The company provides a variety of services from interactive historical presentations, house tours, and concerts to entertainment, festivals, and step-on guides for buses. Tours are offered each fall and spring and include historical homes, mansions, and estates, such as Longwood, Stanton Hall, Rosalie, The Burn, Linden, and the House on Ellicott Hill. The owners of these historic homes show off their magnificent homes and infamous Southern hospitality by opening their doors to allow visitors an opportunity to experience the history that shaped this charming Mississippi city.

640 S Canal St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-446-6631

15.Old South Winery

The Old South Winery is a quaint local family-owned and operated winery that produces and stocks a variety of muscadine-focused wines and has a cozy tasting room where visitors can sample a selection of fine wines. Owned by the Galbreath family, the winery buys the finest muscadine grapes from Mississippi growers and makes wine in the tradition of old Mississippi wine making, using modern techniques to capture the true essence of the fruit. The Old South Winery produces nine muscadine wines in red, white, and rose with varying sweetness levels, from dry to lightly sweetened, as well as one blueberry wine.

65 S Concord Ave, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-445-9924

16.Open Air Tours Natchez

Open Air Tours Natchez offers narrated tours of the historic district of Natchez in open-sided, six-passenger Polaris electric cars. Tours last for between 45 and 60 minutes and explore the rich history of Natchez by visiting some of the beautiful antebellum and Victorian era homes and historic sites around the city. Tours are offered four times a day, 7 days a week, and need to be pre-booked to ensure a place.

640 South Canal Street Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-442-2151

17.Quapaw Canoe Company

The Quapaw Canoe Company offers canoeing and kayaking adventures and guided trips on the Lower Mississippi River in Natchez as well as Fort Adams, Vicksburg, Vidalia, and St. Francisville. Established in 2014 by river guide Adam Elliott, the Quapaw Canoe Company gives visitors the opportunity to experience the wild power of the Lower Mississippi River, the Mississippi loess bluffs, and the northeastern Louisiana floodplain. In addition to experiencing towering cliffs, extensive sandbars, endless forests, and the beautiful muddy Mississippi river, paddlers will also learn more about the adjacent oxbow lakes, back channels, river chutes, and seasonally flooded landscapes of the surrounding terrain. Quapaw Canoe Company trips cater for adventurers and naturalists of all ages, and no previous paddling experience is necessary.

291 Sunflower Ave, Clarksdale, MS 38614, Phone: 662-627-4070

18.Rosalie Mansion

Rosalie Mansion is a beautifully restored and maintained mansion dating back to the early 1800s and a historic house museum open for the public to explore. Built in 1823, the architectural design of the landmark pre-Civil War mansion inspired many of Natchez's grand Greek revival mansions and was a significant influence on the subsequent antebellum architecture and design in the region. Located at the junction of Orleans and South Broadway Streets southwest of Natchez's downtown area with beautiful views of the Mississippi River, Rosalie Mansion served as Union headquarters for the Natchez area during the American Civil War. Today, the mansion is owned, operated, and maintained as a historic house museum by the Mississippi State Society Daughters of the American Revolution and is a National Historic Landmark. Docent-led guided tours of Rosalie Mansion are available.

100 Orleans Street, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-446-5676

19.Steampunk Coffee Roasters

Steampunk Coffee Roasters is a cozy café that serves freshly roasted premium coffee and specialty coffee drinks along with loose leaf teas and a variety of coffee beans from around the world. Open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday, the friendly coffee-centric café serves a wide range of coffee-based drinks from the regular espresso, cappuccino, and macchiatos to French press, siphon vacuum, and Turkish coffee. Iced coffee drinks, smoothies, and chai lattes are also available, along with a small menu of sweet treats such as muffins, brownies, biscotti, and homemade quiche.

114 High St, Natchez, MS 39120, Phone: 601-334-5179

20.William Johnson House

The William Johnson House is a museum that was once the home of the free African-American barber William T. Johnson, who lived in Natchez. Born into slavery in 1809 and later emancipated by his owner in 1820, Johnson trained as a barber and became a successful entrepreneur with his barbershop, bathhouse, and bookstore. The story of his rise from slavery into a successful life became symbolic for freedom fighters around the country, and his diary was published in 1951 and later archived at the Louisiana State University. His mansion became part of Natchez National Historical Park through an act of Congress in 1990 and is open for the public to enjoy.

210 State St, Natchez, MS 39120