Alabama

At the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, lost airline luggage is unpacked and sold to the public at discount prices. More than 7,000 new and second hand items are stocked daily, and all clothing is washed and sorted by size.

Artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Otis Redding came to Alabama to record in the 1960s and 1970s in Muscle Shoals, called at the time the ‘Hit Capital of the World’. Visit FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, just two of the recording studios located in the four adjacent cities of Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals. Florence is also the city where the father of rock and roll (record producer Sam Phillips) and the father of the blues (musician W.C. Handy) were born. Handy’s birthplace and museum welcomes visitors, and there are festivals and music events honouring both Handy and Phillips annually.

• Order grits (coarsely ground corn) for breakfast, sweet ice tea at lunch and fresh gulf seafood for dinner
• Be sure to say “Y’all” (pronounced as one syllable, like ‘yawl’) when referring to a group of people—such as “Y’all look nice”, “Hello y’all” and “Bye y’all”

In the rural hamlet of Gee’s Bend, African-American quilters make marvellous works of art. Their style is based on traditional American and African-American designs, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art, now passed down through at least six generations. The women hone and teach their craft at the Gees Bend Quilters Collective. Visitors are welcome and you can purchase a quilt or even sew a square or two.

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum features more than 1,200 vintage and modern motorcycles and racing cars, including the largest collection of Lotus sports cars and motorcycles dating back to 1904. The museum is part of the Barber Motorsports Park, which is also home to world-class racing and a driving school.

Walk from the Alabama Capitol building to the Alabama River in the footsteps of history. Along this short walk are museums and historical buildings. They include: the church where Dr. Martin Luther King preached; a museum honouring Rosa Parks at the location where she was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a bus; the Hank Williams Museum containing the car in which he was discovered dead in the back seat; a tunnel leading to the Alabama River through which slaves and cotton were transported; the First White House of the Confederacy; the Capitol building where representatives from southern states voted to leave the USA—and where some 100 years later, Dr. King led marchers to the steps in protest. In the evening, you can take a horse-drawn carriage along the route, just as many would have travelled when much of the history took place.

• The longest urban whitewater-rafting course in the world starts in the twin cities of Phenix City, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia, on the Chattahoochee River
• One of the world’s most incredible golf destinations, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail features 26 courses created by the famous course designer.

Something magical happens when you visit the Alabama Gulf Coast, with its sparkling emerald water and 32 miles of white-sand beaches. The moment you arrive in Gulf Shores or Orange Beach, the world starts to fade away. You can go deep-sea charter fishing, scuba diving or on a dolphin watching cruise. Nearby is Mobile, with beautiful historic homes and moss-covered oak trees. Go kayaking to barrier islands off nearby Dauphine Island or birdwatching along the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail.

The Moundville Archaeological Park is one of the most significant Native American archaeological sites in the USA. The 26 flat-topped earthen mounds were the location of the second-largest settlement of Mississippian culture, a people who pre-date the Choctaw and were in the region when the first European explorers arrived. At the time when Moundville was most heavily populated between 1000 and 1450 A.D., the community took the form of a 300-acre village built on a cliff overlooking the Black Warrior River.

At the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, simulators let you experience a space shot, G-forces and weightlessness onboard a spacecraft. Tour the grounds of the U.S. Space Camp Training Center, where over the past 25 years, more than half a million children of all ages have come to experience life in the final frontier.