Alabama
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Alabama - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Arts/Performance VenueOne million red bricks adorn this striking 100,000-square-foot theater complex, worth seeing for its classical architecture and lovely 250 acres of English-style grounds and lake alone. Three works by William Shakespeare are among 14 productions staged annually in two theaters. Other famous playwrights round out the schedule along with musicals, concerts, and new works.
1 Festival Dr., Montgomery, Alabama, 36117, USA334-271–5353Sight Details
Rate Includes: Sun., unless performances are scheduled, Closed Sun. -
2. Old Alabama Town
Historic District/SiteTravel back 100-plus years along six blocks of restored structures that illustrate Montgomery life long ago. Elegant Victorian pieces furnish the central, circa-1850s Ordeman House, a contrast to the village's humble log cabin and simple church, school, and tavern. The Landmarks Foundation that runs the site found so many relics during restorations of 19th- and 20th-century buildings that it launched the nearby Rescued Relics, a nonprofit salvage warehouse offering historic architectural elements and materials.
301 Columbus St., Montgomery, Alabama, 36104, USA334-240–4500Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, Closed Sun. -
3. U.S. Space and Rocket Center
Museum/GalleryExperience missions to the moon and beyond at this collection of rockets, space memorabilia, and simulators that mimic rocket launches and gravity forces. Train like an astronaut at the U.S. Space Camp and Space Academy or like a military jet pilot at Aviation Challenge. The center runs a bus tour of NASA labs and shuttle test sites. The Spacedome Theater shows IMAX movies.
1 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, Alabama, 35805, USA800-637–7223Sight Details
Rate Includes: $20, $24 -
4. Von Braun Astronomical Society
ObservatoryThe planetarium might take you back to grade-school field trips, but learning about stars never gets old. Clear night skies over the city's plateaus come to life during astronomy programs presented by society members and guest speakers. The facility, located on a mountain in Monte Sano State Park includes two telescope-equipped observatories, an astronomical library, and a solar telescope.
5105 Nolen Ave., Huntsville, Alabama, 35801, USA256-539–0316Sight Details
Rate Includes: $5, Closed Sun.–Fri. -
5. Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
Museum/GalleryThe 1,200 vintage and modern motorcycles comprise what is considered the largest motorcycle collection in America, if not the world. Bikes from 20 countries represent 200 different manufacturers. Also find the largest collection of Lotus racecars in the world here. Birmingham, Alabama, native George Barber grew the array after racing and modifying Porsches in the 1960s. He started collecting and restoring classic sports cars in 1989 and then turned his attention to two-wheelers. The Barber Motorsports Park next door features a 2.3-mile road course that hosts an IndyCar series and the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama.
6030 Barber Motorsports Pkwy., Birmingham, Alabama, 35094, USA205-699–7275Sight Details
Rate Includes: $15 -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Historians consider Birmingham the "cradle of the civil rights movement," and this museum traces African Americans' struggle for equality back to the 1800s. A series of galleries show the stark differences between blacks' and whites' daily lives over the years. The Movement Gallery focuses on dramatic episodes of the 1955–63 civil rights movement. Located in the Civil Rights district, the museum can be part of a larger tour including Kelly Ingram Park, where large civil rights demonstrations were staged, and the16th Street Baptist Church, the site of a 1960s bombing that killed four young girls.
520 16th St. N, Birmingham, Alabama, 35203, USA205-328--9696Sight Details
Rate Includes: $15, Closed Mon. -
7. Birmingham Museum of Art
Museum/GalleryAdmission is free to three floors housing more than 25,000 paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and decorative arts dating from ancient to modern times. Find the country’s largest museum collection of African ceramics, including 400 clay vessels and figures from across the African continent. The 4,000-object Asian collection is the largest in the Southeast. European, American, pre-Columbian, Native American, and Alabama artists are all represented here. The museum's Oscar's Cafe serves lunch Tuesday through Friday and brunch on some Sundays.
2000 Rev. Abraham Woods Blvd., Birmingham, Alabama, 35203, USA205-254–2565Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Mon. -
8. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge
Nature Preserve/Wildlife RefugeThe French name Bon Secour means "safe harbor," which these 7,000 acres provide for migratory birds, nesting sea turtles, the endangered Alabama beach mouse, and people seeking tranquil hours. Wild dunes still exist along what is one of the Alabama coast’s largest undeveloped areas. Hiking trails, ranging from 1 to more than 4 miles, wind through dunes, swales, wetlands, maritime forests, and scrub habitats where you might see foxes, coyotes, armadillos, and hummingbirds.
12295 Hwy. 180, Gulf Shores, Alabama, 36542, USA251-540–7720Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
9. Clotilda: The Exhibition
Operated by the History Museum of Mobile, this new branch, which opened in 2023 in a newly constructed building in the Africatown historic area of Mobile, tells the story of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship, which sailed into Mobile Bay with 110 enslaved people in 1860, more than 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed. The wreck of the ship itself was discovered in the Mobile River only in 2019, and the museum includes many artifacts that were found and preserved from the wreck. But the exhibit mostly focuses on the lives of the 110 people who survived the sailing (and their descendants), who eventually made their homes as free people in Mobile's Africatown. Because of the size of the facility, advance reservations are required and walk-ins are not allowed.
2465 Winbush St., Mobile, Alabama, 36610, USA251-206--5268Sight Details
Rate Includes: $15, Closed Sun. and Mon., Advance reservations required -
10. Dauphin Island Sea Lab Estuairum
Educational InstitutionCome face-to-face with an alligator or a red snapper at aquarium exhibits that help this marine laboratory share its research with the public. The barrier island location is surrounded by Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound, and Gulf waters. Tanks display watery homes for oyster reefs, eels, octopus, sea horses, sharks, and more.
101 Bienville Blvd., Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, USA251-861–2141Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, $11 -
11. Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage Museum
Religious Building/Site/ShrineDr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the 20th pastor of this church that started in a slave trader’s pen in 1877. The humble, little, redbrick structure hardly signals its significant past. King directed initial civil rights activity in Montgomery, including the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott, from his church office. The church and parsonage, where King and his family lived between 1954 and 1960, are both open for tours. Church services happen each Sunday.
454 Dexter Ave., Montgomery, Alabama, 36104, USA334-263–3970Sight Details
Rate Includes: $7.50, Closed Sun. and Mon. -
12. Fort Condé
Experience colonial life at this former French outpost, where Mobile was born. Today, the city's French origins endure in its Creole cuisine and at this historic site. Roughly 150 years after the fort was destroyed, its remains were discovered during construction of the Interstate 10 interchange. A rebuilt portion houses the city's visitor center as well as a museum. Costumed guides conduct tours.
150 S. Royal St., Mobile, Alabama, 36602, USA251-525–6933Sight Details
Rate Includes: $8, Closed Mon. and Tues. -
13. Fort Morgan
Star shaped and rumored to be haunted, this early-1800s fort on the picturesque western tip of Pleasure Island is where Union admiral David Farragut shouted, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" The fort was built to guard the entrance to Mobile Bay. Farragut yelled his famous lines in 1864, after Confederate torpedoes sank the ironclad USS Tecumseh in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The rest of Farragut's fleet pushed its way to the bay, forcing the Confederates' surrender. The on-site museum tells the story, and actors in period dress reenact events that occurred inside the fort.
110 Hwy. 180, Gulf Shores, Alabama, 36542, USA251-540--7127Sight Details
Rate Includes: $7 -
14. Gulf State Park
Unspoiled beaches, the Gulf’s largest fishing pier, and an 18-hole golf course provide recreational opportunities on 6,150 seaside and lakeside acres. Hiking trails, a 900-acre fishing lake, tennis courts, a large pool, and an interactive nature center supply more fun. Camp or rent a cabin—or rent a well-appointed cottage that's far from rustic and right in the park.
20115 Hwy. 135, Gulf Shores, Alabama, 36542, USA251-948--7275Sight Details
Rate Includes: $5 -
15. History Museum of Mobile
Interactive exhibits and special collections of antique silver, weapons, and more tell the 300-year history of Mobile. The Southern Market/Old City Hall, an 1857 National Historic Landmark Italianate building, houses the museum. A Civil War cannon, miniature houses, and souvenirs from Mobile's oldest mystic societies, the secretive social groups that stage the city’s Mardi Gras celebrations, are on display.
111 S. Royal St., Mobile, Alabama, 36602, USA251-208–7569Sight Details
Rate Includes: $14 -
16. Huntsville Botanical Garden
GardenDogwood lanes, fields of flowers, kitchen gardens, and a miniature train winding through a small-scale European village delight all ages. Maintained by volunteers, the garden includes a 9,000-square-foot natural-stone-and-steel-beam nature center that houses what's billed as the nation’s largest open-air butterfly house. Tadpoles, frogs, birds, turtles, and other creatures populate nearby Little Smith Lake. The garden is especially lovely when festooned with lights at holiday time.
4747 Bob Wallace Ave., Huntsville, Alabama, 35805, USA256-830–4447Sight Details
Rate Includes: $12 -
17. Mobile Carnival Museum
Mobile boasts America’s oldest annual Carnival celebration, which started in 1703, 15 years before New Orleans was founded. Festivities, including parades and masquerade balls, begin in November and continue through Fat Tuesday in mid-February. Find the celebration schedule and learn about the city’s Mardi Gras history at the Mobile Carnival Museum at the historic Bernstein-Bush house. Fourteen gallery rooms, a pictorial hallway, theater, den, and gift shop show off royal robes, crowns, scepters, and more.
355 Government St., Mobile, Alabama, 36602, USA251-432–3324Sight Details
Rate Includes: $8, Closed Tues., Thurs., and Sun. -
18. Oakleigh Historic Complex
This antebellum Greek Revival–style mansion, in the heart of historic Oakleigh Garden District, is Mobile's official period house. Costumed guides give tours of the home, built between 1833 and 1838. See fine period furniture, portraits, silver, jewelry, kitchen implements, toys, and more. Tickets include a tour of the garden, the cook's house, and the neighboring Cox–Deasy House, an 1850s cottage furnished with simple 19th-century pieces. All tours start on the hour.
350 Oakleigh Pl., Mobile, Alabama, 36604, USA251-432–1281Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, Closed Sun. and Mon. -
19. Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark
FactoryTwo 400-ton blast furnaces that fired Birmingham’s longtime, lucrative steel industry are preserved along with boilers, steam-driven blowing engines, and slag granulators. Some 40 buildings, a web of pipes, and tall smokestacks vividly illustrate the 20th-century industrial age, and steel’s hold on the city’s economy. Tours pass enormous machinery and wind through the underground railroad tunnel. Visiting and resident artists exhibit their work and teach metal crafting.
20 32nd St. N, Birmingham, Alabama, 35222, USA205-324–1911Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Mon. -
20. The EarlyWorks Family of Museums
Museum/GalleryA hands-on history complex of three properties traces Alabama’s history from statehood to the Civil War and railroad eras. Craftspeople in period dress demonstrate skills such as woodworking, printing, and weaving at Alabama Constitution Village, the site of Alabama's 1819 constitutional convention. At EarlyWorks Children's Museum, hear stories from a talking tree, wear 1800s-style clothing, and examine a 46-foot keelboat. A few blocks from the village, the Huntsville Depot and Museum gives a glimpse of railroad life in the early 1800s.
404 Madison St. SE, Huntsville, Alabama, 35801, USA256-564–8100Sight Details
Rate Includes: $12, one museum; $20, two museums; $25 all museums, $12–25, Closed Sun.
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