Get to the heart of the American South in Alabama
From musical heritage to American Civil Rights history and from Gulf Coast beaches to the Dinner Table of the South, Alabama is the perfect place to delve into the American South…
Alabama proudly upholds its reputation for warm hospitality and ideal geographical location.
Bordered by Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi, Alabama is ideal for exploring during a leisurely road trip. Meander south to chill on pristine beaches in the Gulf of Mexico.
Along the way, local barbecue joints are ideal for tasting the authentic soul food and hearty southern dishes for which Alabama is renowned.
Beyond urban stops at museums and historic sites significant to the Civil Rights Movement and America’s musical heritage, detours into the likes of Cheaha State Park mean time to appreciate the natural beauty of rural areas.
Huntsville
Now known as ‘the Rocket City’, Huntsville was nicknamed ‘the Watercress Capital of the World’ until Wernher von Braun and fellow scientists arrived in the 1950s. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was established in 1960 and this dynamic city in northeast Alabama – today one of the fastest growing in the USA – played a key role in developing propulsion systems during the Cold War’s Space Race: including the Saturn rockets for the Apollo programme which took NASA astronauts on the moon.
Learn about that – and more – in the world’s largest space museum, the fascinating U.S. Space and Rocket Center, where you can view rockets, military aircraft and capsules used by astronauts. During a multi-day Space Camp, experience what it's like to undergo NASA astronaut training, including flying jet simulators.
Appreciate military history? Plan a visit to the U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum, where volunteers share their knowledge of the artefacts, including vehicles, on display.
Don't miss
A year-round attraction, the beautiful Huntsville Botanical Garden features seasonal exhibits and its amphitheatre hosts the summer Shakespeare in the Garden series of plays. Far larger, the 8,000-capacity Orion Amphitheater is on Billboard’s global list of 2024’s Top Music Venues.
Further afield, a 1.5-hour drive from Huntsville is the Little River Canyon National Preserve. It's the largest canyon in Alabama and features gushing waterfalls, angular rocks and canyon overlooks, making for immersive and scenic hikes.
Soak up the musical heritage
The region’s rich and diverse musical heritage also includes the world’s longest-running Cigar Box Music Festival. Pick up an instrument in the Cigar Box Guitar Store at the Lowe Mill ARTS and Entertainment hub – a revamped factory with a theatre and performance spaces.
Taste the culinary scene
Huntsville’s multifaceted culinary scene includes Downtown Food Truck Rallies at Big Spring International Park every third Friday from May into September. You’re then well-placed to appreciate a delectable drink or two on the craft beer, cocktail and coffee trails.
The Shoals
The Shoals is a cluster of four small cities in northwest Alabama. ‘The Hit Recording Capital of the World’ is an ideal destination for music fans, thanks to the impressive discography of hits recorded at local studios, including Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett, Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones and Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman.
On the south bank of the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals is home to FAME Recording Studios, whose backstage tour includes the office of Rick Hall, the studio owner who produced a string of hits during his long career.
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, at 3614 Jackson Highway in neighbouring Sheffield, also offers tours. Cher recorded her first solo album in the stone-fronted building. Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart and Willie Nelson number among the long list of artists who have laid down tracks at the Studio.
Don't miss
Hire a canoe or kayak to go paddling on the Tennessee River. Alternatively, cross the O’Neal Bridge into Florence to continue the music-themed sightseeing and visit the W.C. Handy Museum in the log cabin that was the birthplace of ‘The Father of the Blues’. Each summer The Shoals hosts the 10-day W.C. Handy Music Festival whose headliners have included Dizzy Gillespie and Little Milton. Find shade under a tree, take a pew in a church or pop into one of the stores that count among concert venues.
Experience the Alabama Music Hall of Fame
Tuscumbia is home to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. West of the town, partially hidden beneath overhanging rock, the rustic Rattlesnake Saloon has traditional swing doors and is an atmospheric spot for a succulent burger.
Birmingham
Hungry? You can rectify that in Birmingham, which is known as the ‘Dinner Table of the South’ because of its hearty southern-style cuisine and exquisite, deep-flavoured barbecue dishes. Dip chicory smoked dishes in white barbecue sauce, a tangy Alabama delicacy, and savour the likes of tender pulled pork and the caramelised intensity of burnt ends. Saw’s and Dreamland are two of the popular barbecue chains with a presence in Birmingham.
There’s also an array of welcoming restaurants showcasing work by talented chefs. Several in Birmingham have been distinguished with James Beard Foundation Awards, which celebrate the people behind America’s food culture. 2024’s semi-finalists include Chanah Willis, the owner of the Last Call Baking micro patisserie, as Emerging Chef, and Rob McDaniel, of the restaurant Helen, as Best Chef in the South.
Don't miss
To see beautifully maintained motorcycles, part of the world’s biggest collection, spend an afternoon at Barber Motor Vintage Motorsports Museum. The Barber Motorsports Park hosts a busy calendar of events, including race and track days. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, in the Uptown district, honours the state’s outstanding sportspeople, including Olympic quadruple gold medallist Jesse Owens.
Learn about the American Civil Rights Movement
The city witnessed key moments relating to the American Civil Rights Movement. Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute conveys their context. It occupies a building opposite Kelly Ingram Park, whose numerous sculptures include a depiction of a police dog snapping at an African American during a 1963 protest that took place in the area. Tours of 16th Street Baptist Church explain the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four girls – a pivotal event in shaping public opinion during the struggle to end racial segregation.
Montgomery
Montgomery is a history-rich city and its compact downtown means that places of interest around the domed Alabama State Capitol can be reached easily on foot. The first capital of the Confederate States of America, it is still coming to terms with a past intertwined with episodes highlighting racial injustices.
On the broad street rising to the elegant white Capitol building, you can enter Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor between 1954 and 1960. His restored parsonage, a white-painted house with a raised porch on South Jackson Street, is one of several sites in an around Montgomery that feature on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.
Don't miss
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of the mid-1950s and later Freedom Rides on interstate transport were coordinated from the First Baptist Church on Ripley Street. At the Rosa Parks Museum, named after the woman who refused demands to vacate her seat on a segregated service, you can sit aboard a city bus from the time and hear how the situation escalated.
See where Civil Rights history unfolded
Hard-hitting, the hilltop National Memorial for Peace and Justice is a site for reflecting on the lynchings of more than 4,400 black people whose names are inscribed. Like the riverside Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, art is embraced to invoke imagining the past in an initiative by the Equal Justice Initiative, which also established The Legacy Museum. On the site of a former cotton warehouse, the museum makes telling use of a range of media to convey historic events and their legacy.
Mobile
Mobile is home to the USA’s oldest annual carnival. If you can’t be present to party at Mardi Gras, when marching bands and decorated floats parade through the streets, step inside Mobile Carnival Museum to discover the event’s heritage. View historic photos and regalia from carnival royalty before continuing to colourful statues in Mardi Gras Park.
There are many stories to discover in Mobile, including that of the 110 Africans transported to Alabama in 1860 – long after slave trading was outlawed. Their tale is told in Clotilda: The Exhibition at the purpose-built Africatown Heritage House, in the district where the transported people settled after being freed. Another storied vessel, the battleship USS Alabama, known as ‘the Heroine of the Pacific’, is moored in a memorial park also displaying a World War Two submarine, USS Drum, plus military aircraft and vehicles.
One of the oldest cities in the USA, Mobile was the first capital of France’s Louisiana Territory. Legacies of French influence can be noted in place names such as Bienville Square, a leafy park honouring Mobile’s founder, and Dauphin Street – with its pastel-fronted buildings, balconies and cast-iron ornamentation – in the heart of the historic entertainment district.
Don't miss
The array of culinary offerings available in Mobile’s many bars and restaurants reflects the port city’s subsequent influences from multiple cultures. Options include sitting down to seafood fresh from the nearby Gulf of Mexico, Southern cuisine, Latin American dishes, po-boy sandwiches and slow-cooked barbecued meats.
Explore the expansive Mobile-Tensaw Delta
Nearby, experience the country’s most biodiverse ecosystem by hiring a kayak or canoe to paddle in the expansive Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Alternatively, airboats and conventional boat tours bring opportunities to observe turtles, alligators and a wealth of birdlife.
Gulf Shores & Orange Beach
Layer on the suncream, inhale in the briny air of Alabama’s Gulf Coast and kick off your shoes to scrunch white sand between your toes. Wedged between Mobile Bay and Perdido Bay, the coastal strip protrudes like a hammerhead into the turquoise of the Gulf of Mexico.
One of the best ways to understand the lay of the land around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach – a one-hour drive southeast of Mobile – is to enjoy a helicopter ride. Taking off from Gulf Shores International Airport, Lost Bay Helicopters’ coastal flights include an insightful Battle of Mobile Tour focusing on the region’s Civil War heritage. The star-shaped fortifications of Fort Morgan, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and ramparts of Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, are among the highlights of the scenic fly over.
Don't miss
Explore Gulf State Park’s Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail, a 45km paved system which is popular with hikers and cyclists. Birders should bring binoculars as over 230 species can be observed in the region, including blue herons, red-headed woodpeckers and great crested flycatchers. The park also provides habitat for wildlife such as bobcats and alligators. The beach pavilion’s shaded tables are ideal for unpacking a picnic after a morning walk.
Experience the best of the Alabama Gulf Coast
North of Barber Marina and you may spot dinosaurs. The enormous woodland sculptures are by Mark Cline, who also recreated the vast, reclining Lady in the Bay and Bamahenge, a full-size, fibreglass replica of Stonehenge.
Equipment hire and first-class instruction mean it’s also rewarding to spend time on the water kite surfing, kayaking or foil surfing. Alternatively, relax aboard a thatched tiki boat while sipping a drink and gazing at one of the Alabama Gulf Coast's soul-warming golden sunsets.
Feeling inspired?
Experience Alabama’s rich culture, music, history and cuisine for yourself.
