Five Great Things About the Grosse Savanne Experience You Might Not Know
We’ve now been to Grosse Savanne twice – once in October of 2019 and once in September of 2024 – and it’s my sincere hope that we’ll be back many more times in the future. Out of the marsh there rises a first-class lodge with incredible hospitality and superior fishing and hunting. I’ll save the specific descriptions of the onsite sporting activities for other blog entries, but for now here are five additional reasons to make it the site of your next adventure:
Unbelievable Food – The Robbins crew and associates aren’t necessarily picky about food, but we’re greatly appreciative when the cuisine at a fishing lodge or location is high-quality. We’ll go pretty far out of our way for excellent food, especially if it reflects the local culture and ingredients. There are few regions that have a richer food history than South Louisiana and Grosse Savanne creatively takes full advantage of that history. On our last trip, we had an amazing seafood gumbo one night and a Wagyu chicken fried steak for lunch the next day. Chef Matt Whitney is a humble master of his craft and while I’m sure there are repeated favorites, he’s constantly creating new gems.
Multiple Options – I’m not going to delve into the specifics of the fishing and hunting here, but unlike most lodges where you go for one particular sport or species, at Grosse Savanne there are multiple options. Maybe you want a “cast and blast” of ducks in the morning and fishing in the afternoon. Even then, you have to decide whether it will be freshwater fishing or saltwater. On this past trip we fished for bass one day and then hunted alligators (something we’d never thought we’d do) on the next. That variety keeps in fresh and exciting and can make a multi-day trip into two or three trips in one.
365 Days a Year – That’s literally their motto: “GS 365: Our Season Never Ends.” There’s always something that’s firing on all cylinders, usually two or three things, in fact. While most fishing and hunting areas have regulated seasons or weather factors that limit them, any time you need a getaway for some sort of world-class sporting adventure, Grosse Savanne has options.
Eco-Tours – Even if you or someone in your group is not interested in hunting or fishing, they can still enjoy the Grosse Savanne experience. The lodge itself is luxurious and inviting and they offer eco-tours so that you can understand the amazing marsh environment in a non-consumptive way.
Easy Access – While there is an airport in nearby Lake Charles (LCH) with short flights to Houston on United and to Dallas on American, on both of our trips we’ve flown to Houston and then made the approximately 2 hour drive to the lodge. It’s super-simple, with most of the route on major highways. It’s a little bit longer, over 3 hours, from New Orleans or Shreveport. Little Rock, Oklahoma City and Atlanta are six, eight and nine hour drives away. On the day of our alligator hunt, we were on the road in the early afternoon and home late at night, which meant that we didn’t have to take a day off of work – which provided us more opportunity to save for the next visit.
