Each year, National Travel and Tourism Week--the first full week in May--and National Tourism Month celebrate the role travel plays in supporting local businesses, jobs, and communities. At Visit The Northshore's Visitor Center in Mandeville, that impact shows up in everyday moments: helping road trippers find a great lunch spot, pointing cyclists toward scenic trails, introducing visitors to local festivals and live music, or simply offering a quiet place to stretch their legs or enjoy a picnic among the trees. 

The Visit The Northshore Visitor Center sits among tall trees and native vegetation along U.S. Highway 59 in Mandeville, Louisiana.

 

More Than a Visitor Center: Comfort, Hospitality and Natural Beauty

As Visit The Northshore approaches its 50th anniversary in November 2026, our visitor center remains many travelers’ first introduction to St. Tammany Parish. Tucked into the woods on La. Highway 59, just north of I-12 Exit 65, the center offers local recommendations, traveler comforts and an unexpectedly peaceful setting surrounded by lush plants and trees, songbirds, and small wildlife, all accessible from a long boardwalk that winds its way around the building. Following a major interior renovation completed in 2025, the refreshed space continues welcoming visitors while preserving the rustic, nature-connected character that has long made it memorable. 

Visit The Northshore Visitor Center sign beside Highway 59 in Mandeville, Louisiana, surrounded by blooming flowers and landscaped greenery.
Pink evening primrose, slender vervain and variegated liriope (monkey grass)

A large patch of blooming bee balm grows beneath a palm tree outside the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), also known as bee balm

American, Louisiana and Visit The Northshore flags flying beside the boardwalk entrance at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
The boardwalk entrance is marked by American, Louisiana and Bonnie Blue flags, a nod to the short-lived Republic of West Florida, which included St. Tammany Parish.

A historic marker at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center explains St. Tammany Parish’s role in the short-lived Republic of West Florida in 1810.

Visit The Northshore Visitor Center elevated on wooden pilings among trees and native vegetation in Mandeville, Louisiana, viewed from the edge of the parking lot near the boardwalk entrance.

Boardwalk entrance and decorative lighthouse structure surrounded by wooded wetlands at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
A new lighthouse-inspired feature now welcomes visitors along the boardwalk, replacing the center’s longtime event kiosk.

 

Comforts, Curiosities and Local Guidance

Inside the lobby, Visitor Services staff help guests plan their stay with area maps, brochures for local and statewide attractions, and magazines highlighting regional culture. Visitors can relax in lobby seating, enjoy complimentary coffee, cold water or sodas, and watch a looping video showcasing scenes from across The Northshore.

Four-legged travelers are welcome, too, with free Visit The Northshore bandanas available at the front desk for both large dogs and smaller pets, including cats. Visitors who enjoy geocaching can also discover a hidden geocache container installed in 2007. Since then, 30 geocachers from 15 states and six Louisiana cities have left behind small keepsakes and travel tokens from their journeys.

Practical comforts matter, too. The recently renovated property includes updated single-occupancy restrooms, including one with a changing table, along with water fountains and a bottle refill station that tracks how many disposable bottles have been saved from the landfill. Picnic tables offer a shady place for a snack break, while grassy areas around the parking lot give pets room to stretch their legs.

The front entrance to the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center opens from a shaded wooden deck surrounded by forest views and large windows.

Zondra White Jones and Annette Shurtz welcoming visitors at the front desk inside the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana

Brochure shelves featuring local and statewide attractions fill the lobby of the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center beside large windows overlooking the wooded deck.

 

Basket of free Visit The Northshore pet bandanas for dogs and cats at the visitor center front desk in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Geocaching container and travel trinkets displayed inside the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Two single-occupancy public restrooms at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center include accessible features and a diaper changing station. Public water fountains beside the restrooms at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center include a bottle-filling station with a counter tracking plastic bottles saved from landfills.


 

Eye Level with the Trees, Grounded in Water

Step outside, and the experience becomes even more memorable. A covered deck and raised boardwalk overlook a native bottomland hardwood swamp, allowing visitors to safely enjoy wetland scenery without disturbing the habitat. 

The center’s tin roof — gloriously noisy in a rainstorm — sits beneath towering pines, while large windows and surrounding decks keep the woods constantly in view. Because the building rises above the low, swampy ground, visitors experience the landscape at eye level with the understory, creating the feeling of being immersed in nature even while indoors.

Benches placed along the route invite guests to pause, listen to birdsong and take in the view of the creek that winds through the property before joining the larger watershed.

Year-round, you may observe Northern cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, wrens, woodpeckers, titmice, warblers, vireos, crows and thrushes--not to mention the occasional red-shouldered hawk or barred owl. Although the center is on a busy highway near a busier interstate, avid birders will tell you, Mandeville is in the Mississippi flyway, so you're bound to encounter many more species during spring and fall migrations. (View a list of birds observed at the center at bottom*.)

Two green picnic tables sit on the covered deck of the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center, overlooking the boardwalk and wooded swamp landscape in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Sunlight filters across a covered deck with benches overlooking the wooded swamp surrounding the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center.

Benches line a shaded wooden boardwalk winding through the swamp forest beside the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville.

Boardwalk overlook and wooded wetlands surrounding the north side of the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.

 

A Boardwalk through the Wetlands 

During periods of especially heavy rain, the creek naturally spills into the surrounding swamp below the visitor center before slowly draining back into the Bogue Falaya watershed, a reminder of the close relationship between South Louisiana communities and water. Built on pilings above the wetlands, the center was designed to coexist with the changing landscape around it. Generous rains help create a lush environment where something vibrant and fragrant blooms (true all over St. Tammany) every month of the year.

Cypress, live oak, yaupon, magnolia, gum, palmetto, wild azalea, French mulberry and mayhaw surround the property, while dense layers of broad leaves and lush ferns gather around cypress knees. Along the boardwalk, look for the ever-changing mossy stump covered in bracket fungi, where decay becomes part of the swamp ecosystem’s renewal.

Bracket fungi grow from a weathered tree stump along the wooded boardwalk area at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Dryad's Saddle bracket fungi (Cerioporus squamosus) on oak (Quercus)

A pale Carolina wild petunia bloom covered in raindrops grows among pine needles and fallen leaves at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Wild petunia/prairie petunia (Ruellia humilis)

White Southern magnolia bloom surrounded by glossy green leaves after a rainstorm at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

 

Native Blooms & Pollinator Gardens

The surrounding landscape is intentionally planted with mostly species selected to thrive in South Louisiana while supporting local habitat, especially pollinators. Depending on the season, guests may spot blooms including:  American beautyberry, ashy sunflower, bee balm, black-eyed Susan, Brazilian verbena, cardinal flower, columbine varieties, coral bean, dill, gaillardia, lantana, lyreleaf sage, mistflower, narrowleaf sunflower, orange coneflower ‘Goldsturm’, oxeye daisy, pink evening primrose, rigid verbena, rosinweed, scarlet rosemallow, Turk’s cap mallow, white daisy fleabane, white wild indigo and wild petunia (scroll to bottom for scientific names). Most are native to Louisiana and perennial, while others simply grow well in the climate, like oxeye daisy, or are annuals, like the columbine hybrids. 

 

Wildlife sightings are part of the charm. Songbirds, bees, butterflies, turtles, tree frogs, green anoles, skinks, raccoons, flying squirrels, gray squirrels and the occasional river otter or armadillo remind visitors that nature is never far away on The Northshore.
 

Close-up of a bumblebee gathering nectar from a pale bee balm flower in the native gardens at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) or bee balm, with carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica)

Swan purple and white columbine at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center.
Purple and white swan columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris)

White false indigo blooms rise above green foliage in a native plant bed at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
White wild indigo (Baptisia alba)

Yellow narrowleaf sunflower blooms fill a native garden bed at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Pink Mexican primrose flowers blooming in sunlight at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) 

Clusters of pink, yellow and white lantana flowers bloom among textured green leaves at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
"Ham and eggs" lantana (Lantana camara) or Shrub verbena

Songbird cardinal columbine blooms grow among fallen leaves near the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center
Songbird cardinal columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

White daisy fleabane flowers with yellow centers bloom in front of purple verbena at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center.
White daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus) and rigid verbena (Verbena rigida)

Bright red coral bean (Erythrina herbacea), also known in Louisiana as the Mamou plant, glistens with raindrops near the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center.
Coral bean (Erythrina herbacea), also known locally as the Mamou plant

Close-up of purple and white columbine flowers blooming in the native gardens at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Blue columbine (Aquilegia caerulea)

ink prairie phlox blankets the grassy median between the entrance and exit drives at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center, mixed with scattered purple verbena and spring grasses.
Prairie phlox (Phlox pilosa) mixed with scattered purple verbena (Verbena rigida), self heal (Prunella vulgaris) and spring grasses.

 

Connected to the Community

The boardwalk extends toward nearby parish facilities, connecting the visitor center to the surrounding community landscape. Visitors who continue beyond the property can easily reach nearby amenities including Kids Konnection Playground and the Tammany Trace, making the visitor center a convenient first stop for families and active travelers alike.

For 50 years, Visit The Northshore has helped visitors discover what makes St. Tammany Parish special. At our visitor center, that welcome begins with hospitality at the front desk and continues just outside, where the landscape tells its own Louisiana story.

Senior Sales Manager and podcast co-host Zondra White Jones waves from the wooded boardwalk near the lighthouse at the Visit The Northshore Visitor Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Senior Sales Manager and All The Waves co-host Zondra White Jones waves hello from the boardwalk.

The elevated Visit The Northshore Visitor Center rises among pine and hardwood trees along Highway 59 in Mandeville.

 

About the Birds & Blooms

Species planted on Visit The Northshore grounds include: American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), ashy sunflower (Helianthus mollis), bee balm (Monarda spp.), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Brazilian verbena (Verbena bonariensis), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), columbine varieties (Aquilegia spp.), coral bean (Erythrina herbacea), dill (Anethum graveolens), gaillardia (Gaillardia spp.), lantana (Lantana camara), lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata), mistflower (Ageratum spp.), narrowleaf sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius), orange coneflower ‘Goldsturm’ (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’), oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa), rigid verbena (Verbena rigida), rosinweed (Silphium spp.), scarlet rosemallow (Hibiscus coccineus), Turk’s cap mallow (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii), white daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus), white wild indigo (Baptisia alba) and wild petunia (Ruellia humilis)

 

Birds observed around the center include: American crow, American robin, barred owl, blue jay, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown thrasher, brown-headed nuthatch, Canada goose, Carolina chickadee, Carolina wren, cedar waxwing, downy woodpecker, Eastern towhee, fish crow, gray catbird, indigo bunting, mourning dove, Northern cardinal, Northern mockingbird, red-bellied woodpecker, red-shouldered hawk, ruby-throated hummingbird, summer tanager, tufted titmouse, white-eyed vireo and wood thrush.


Text and photos ©2026 Roberta Carrow Jackson. Plant species identification by John Mayronne of John Mayronne Associates, who designs, plants and maintains the visitor center grounds. Birds identified by Roberta using the Merlin Bird ID app by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University. 

Click for more information about our visitor center and staff. 

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