Road trips · Alabama

Alabama road trips & hidden gems.

The stops worth changing a travel day for in Alabama — crowd-voted gems, events worth traveling for, and the public golf you can actually book. Curated by Roamward, the scenic road-trip planner.

What locals say you shouldn’t miss.

Crowd-nominated in the Gem Hunt. Add yours and vote the finalists into the app.

Ave Maria Grotto

A four-acre garden of 125 tiny stone replicas of the world's great churches and shrines, hand-built by a Benedictine monk over 50 years, on the abbey grounds in Cullman off I-65.

Dismals Canyon

A privately owned sandstone gorge near Phil Campbell where, on summer nights, the canyon walls glow blue-green with "dismalites" — rare glowworms found almost nowhere else in North America.

Rattlesnake Saloon

A full restaurant and watering hole tucked inside a giant natural rock shelter near Tuscumbia, reached by a "saloon taxi" truck ride down into the hollow past a small waterfall.

Cathedral Caverns State Park

A walk-in cave near Woodville with one of the widest cave entrances in the world and a forest of massive stalagmites, on an easy 90-minute guided tour in the Tennessee Valley foothills.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge

7,000 acres of undeveloped Gulf beach, dunes, and wetlands at the tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula — a quiet alternative to the Gulf Shores crowds and a key stop for migrating monarchs and birds.

Bamahenge

A full-scale fiberglass replica of Stonehenge standing in a field in Elberta, with life-size dinosaur sculptures lurking in the nearby woods — a delightfully weird free stop near the Gulf Coast.

Public golf you can book in Alabama.

Lakewood Golf Club at the Grand Hotel

Point Clear · $$$$ — Ancient oaks on Mobile Bay

RTJ Capitol Hill The Judge

Prattville · $$$$ — 80-foot drop off the first tee

RTJ Capitol Hill The Senator

Prattville · $$$$ — Towering-bunker dunes links

RTJ Grand National Lake Course

Opelika · $$$$ — Twelve holes on the water

RTJ Grand National Links Course

Opelika · $$$$ — Tour-tested sister track

RTJ Ross Bridge

Hoover · $$$$ — One of the world's longest

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