Where to Stay in Shreveport, Louisiana

What is Shreveport known for?

The area sits inside the stretch of the state designated Sportsman's Paradise, where lakes and rivers carry most of the recreation, and the rolling hills and pine forests around the city belong to the Piney Woods that reach in from Texas. Museums fill the indoor half. Sci-Port and the Shreveport Aquarium handle science and marine life, the Meadows Museum of Art holds the collection, and Fair Grounds Field carries the sporting name.

What are the main landmarks in Shreveport?

Churches carry much of the register. Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Antioch Baptist Church, First Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church and Kings Highway Christian Church between them cover most of the older congregations, and their buildings anchor several of the neighbourhoods around the centre. Sci-Port takes the science side.

The Shreveport Aquarium, the Meadows Museum of Art and the Multicultural Center of the South round out the visitor list, while Lewis House, Davidson House and Wile House survive from the residential city.

What is the history of Shreveport?

River trade made the place. Founded in 1836 on the west bank of the Red River, the settlement took the parish seat of Caddo Parish and grew on the traffic the river could carry, becoming the point where goods changed hands for a wide stretch of country. Trade set the pattern.

Its reach eventually crossed the water, and the built-up area spilled into Bossier Parish while Bossier City grew up opposite as the second half of a twin-city arrangement. Congregations built early and built well. Antioch Baptist Church, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, First Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church all belong to that period of consolidation, when the city was settling into its role as the principal centre of the Ark-La-Tex.

Houses followed the same rhythm. Lewis House, Davidson House and Wile House record the domestic side of the same decades, and the Multicultural Center of the South was later given the job of telling the layered story those streets contain. Growth took Shreveport past most of Louisiana, leaving only New Orleans and Baton Rouge larger, and it spread across enough ground that Caddo Parish and the pine country beyond became part of the city's working hinterland.

Where is Shreveport?

Hills and pine set this apart from the rest of the state. Shreveport occupies the west bank of the Red River, with the bulk of it inside Caddo Parish and an eastern fringe reaching into Bossier Parish, and the ground around it rolls rather than lies flat. The Piney Woods begin here.

That belt of forest extends in from Texas, giving the surroundings a relief and a tree cover that the lower parishes lack, while lakes and rivers scattered through the area supply much of the local recreation.

What is the climate of Shreveport?

The pine country moderates little. Shreveport lies in the subtropical band, and summer heat settles over the Red River valley with humidity that the surrounding Piney Woods hold in rather than disperse. Winters run short and changeable.

Cold air reaches Caddo Parish from time to time and gives way quickly, leaving a season of rain and mild spells rather than sustained frost.

How do you get to Shreveport?

Roads converge from three states. Shreveport functions as the hub of the Ark-La-Tex, so approaches arrive from every direction across a region that spills over the state lines, and the bridges over the Red River gather them into the twin-city core. Bossier City is the other half.

Traffic between the two banks crosses constantly, and inside Caddo Parish the distances are large enough that a car is the practical way to move between the riverside downtown and the outer neighbourhoods.