My wife and I will be driving to Nashville late June for a convention. We plan to see Bellingrath gardens on the way & stay there in Mobile for a couple of days, then drive part of the way to Nashville and stop somewhere on the way for about 2 1/2 days. I was thinking of Chattanooga. (We have been to Montgomery several times for shows at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, so wouldn't want to stop there - besides there are no shows playing then.) Any ideas about that as a stopping point or other city suggestions ? Thanks everyone.

Chattanooga, while a nice little city, would be well out of your way. Birmingham is a decent sized place, & probably about 1/2 way. You might try that.

Definitely Birmingham. Chattanooga is WAY out of the way.

Guess it depends on what's considered out of the way. I was thinking of Chattanooga as well. Very nice town and thoroughly enjoyable. The distance from Birmingham straight to Nashville is 193 mi. Birmingham via Chattanooga to Nashville is 270 mi. That's about 80 mi further. I'm used to long distances, but that doesn't seem too out of the way to me, especially if you've got 2.5 days. Just a thought.

So it seems like it will be either Birmingham or Chattanooga. Yes an 80 mile difference will be less than 2 hours of driving, so no big deal. I guess then the Q is which would we prefer - Birmingham or Chattanooga. I will do some more research on the 2, but am still all ears...

If the question is "Where to spend 2.5 days - B'ham or Chattanooga?", there is only ONE "right" answer - Chattanooga.

BUT, there are other options. If you are interested in the mountains you may enjoy the very tip top NE corner of Alabama. Gorgeous! Or, go to Chattanooga and then wander the back roads up to Nashville. Go to Jack Daniels distellery, Bell Buckle TN and some delightful little towns off the expressway between Chatt and Nashville.

But, I'd probably vote for one of the state parks in the corner of AL.

I like starrs suggestions. Lookout Mountain is also worth a visit. There is some really nice scenery in the area.

Chattanooga itself is very enjoyable. Downtown area is very walkable, with a free shuttle running from the Train Museum (yes, including the Chattanooga Choo Choo) down Market/Broad St to the river where there's the Tenn. Acquarium and Museum of American Art and nice rec facilities along the river. Plenty of nice restaurants and hotels along Broad.

SEE ROCK CITY!

Sorry, couldn't help myself. But the Lookout mtn. area is a worthwhile visit if you've never been there.

www.seerockcity.com

Huntsville about 20 miles off I-65 on I-565 is home of the US Space & Rocket Center and Space Camp. Can see a vertical Saturn V (replica) and a restored Saturn V in the new Davidson Center for Space Exploration as well as what is billed as the largest space museum. Has Omnimax theatre, SR-71 Blackbird. A number of rockets and ride called Space Shot. Thru August the Huntsville Museum of Art is sponsoring an exhibit on Space Art. Every Monday night they offer a free musical concert in the park.

Diehard garage sale goers might want to stop off in Scottsboro, 45m North of Huntsville to see the original Unclaimed Baggage - where a lot of the luggage the airlines lose ends up on sale.