Southeast USA
Alabama
Alabama’s beauty, history, culture and adventure
The famed “Sweet Home Alabama” you may have heard is more than a song. This is a land of history, culture, music and adventure from beaches to mountains. Music legends Nat King Cole, W.C. Handy and Hank Williams were born in Alabama, and artists including Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones came to Alabama to cement their careers. Here, Gospel is sung in churches and folks dance, while Blues, Country and Jazz set the mood in local bars. Locally owned restaurants dish up meals of mouth-watering barbecue and fresh seafood from Alabama’s fishing villages, and museums cover everything from Civil Rights and music history to fast cars and faster spacecraft.
Rich Southern History
It was in the river city of Montgomery, under the white dome of the State Capitol, where the breakaway Confederate States of America were born, leading to the U.S. Civil War. Alabama is also famous for its role in the struggle for equality between black and white Americans. It’s here that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, marched and changed history. In Montgomery, Rosa Parks challenged segregation by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.
One-of-a-Kind Attractions in Alabama
Alabama is filled with unique destinations that will thrill the whole family. Tour grand, columned antebellum homes located across the state. Visit space and motor sports museums for a visceral thrill. Head to Phenix City for exciting whitewater rafting. Scenic mountains and waterfalls are found in Mentone, Fort Payne and Gadsden.
Alabama’s top museums include the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum and the legendary studios of Muscle Shoals, where famous musicians have recorded since 1959.
Great Food, White Sand, Mardi Gras and More
Alabama is one of the greatest food destinations in the USA. Here, you can sample slow-cooked Southern dishes, elegant fine dining and fresh Gulf of Mexico seafood.
The southern tip of Alabama is best known for Mobile Bay and the Gulf Coast beaches. Mobile is where Mardi Gras got its start in the USA. During Carnival season, downtown streets are filled with marching bands and brilliantly colored floats.
Along with white-sand beaches, Alabama offers state parks crossed with trails to explore. Each resort town has a large variety of restaurants, bars and nightlife. Play your way through 26 golf courses and 468 holes across the state, including world-class golf on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.
Alabama is the physical heart and the cultural soul of the Deep South. Montgomery and Birmingham are a 2.5-hour drive from Atlanta, while Mobile and the beaches of Gulf Shores are about the same distance from New Orleans. The Alabama cities of Florence, Muscle Shoals and Huntsville are only a few hours’ drive from Nashville.
Arkansas
Blues, barbecue, sports and the great outdoors
Known as The Natural State for stunning mountain vistas and clear running streams, Arkansas is so much more. Cities like Little Rock, Hot Springs and Bentonville offer a cosmopolitan feel, while a visit to one-of-a-kind Eureka Springs will stay with you for a lifetime. The Delta region is where the blues were born and Johnny Cash’s musical journey began. Bill Clinton, another Arkansas son, also launched his political path in the state, and sites commemorating the legacies of both Cash and Clinton can be toured today. Arkansas is also the rice capital of the world and home to one of only three purse museums on the planet. Throw in Crater of Diamonds State Park, where you can dig for real diamonds and keep what you find, and Arkansas truly is a unique treasure to discover.
From its rugged mountains and rolling rapids to its historic small towns, caves and mines, Arkansas’s landscape reflects the scenic variety of this part of the USA, all the way down to its Delta. While it may be known for the verdant Ozarks and mighty rivers running through the bluffs, it’s also one of the birthplaces of blues, jazz and folk. The Delta blues tradition – and the much-boasted-about fact that Johnny Cash was born here – is alive and well in the towns and cities where it began, especially Helena and Little Rock. Hear folk music on the banjo and fiddle, country blues played in the original style or tour Cash’s boyhood home.
Experience both natural and musical landmarks on a road trip along one of a dozen scenic byways; start with Hot Springs to Eureka Springs. Along the way, visit Washington State Park to learn what it was like to live as a pioneer or head to the Museum of Native American History to see pottery and tools left by Arkansas’s earliest people.
