Travel

Browse exclusive SoulGrown stories about travel in beautiful Alabama

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SoulGrown’s Travel section is your guide to exploring Alabama’s scenic coastlines, mountain retreats, and charming small towns. From hidden gems and luxury stays to outdoor adventures and cultural destinations, find inspiration for day trips, weekend getaways, and unforgettable journeys. With curated guides, itineraries, and vivid storytelling, SoulGrown helps you plan meaningful adventures while seeing Alabama in new ways.

SoulGrown’s Travel section is your guide to exploring Alabama’s scenic coastlines, mountain retreats, and charming small towns. From hidden gems and luxury stays to outdoor adventures and cultural destinations, find inspiration for day trips, weekend getaways, and unforgettable journeys. With curated guides, itineraries, and vivid storytelling, SoulGrown helps you plan meaningful adventures while seeing Alabama in new ways.

On a quiet Alabama morning, before emails and meetings begin to pull at the day, Tom Adams finds clarity in the field. Quail hunting has been part of Tom’s life […]

Father and son hunting outdoors

Lessons from the Alabama outdoors: how quail hunting shapes leadership

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February 19, 2026

Before the chants, before the speeches, before history was written into law, the Civil Rights Movement was sung. Music moved through churches, jail cells, and city streets, carrying grief, faith, […]

Sam Cooke on guitar

The sound of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama

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February 18, 2026

Winter in Alabama has a way of keeping us guessing. Just when the afternoons start to feel like spring, another cold snap rolls through and reminds us March hasn’t quite […]

Latte art

Warm beverages for cold weather + one cold drink you’ll want all year

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February 17, 2026

One of the most underrated aspects of Alabama is the state’s remarkable capacity for ecotourism. Ranking fourth in the nation for biodiversity — and first among states east of the […]

Cheaha State Park

Our top Alabama outdoor experiences for nature lovers

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February 17, 2026

You might already know Vecchia Pizzeria & Mercato, a staple in Hoover since opening in 2014 — the kind of place that smells like warm dough and simmering sauce as […]

Vecchia Owners

An inside look at Hoover’s Vecchia Gelato & Café

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February 16, 2026

Alabama is a state full of surprises, offering something for everyone — from colorful Mardi Gras parades along the Gulf Coast to quiet stretches of protected land for hiking, fishing, […]

Rent musical

SoulGrown Spotlight: this week across Alabama

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February 15, 2026

Dr. Maggie Crosland, the Birmingham Museum of Art’s Curator of European Art, guides me through the museum’s newest exhibit with a sense of curiosity and warmth; it’s clear that she […]

Birmingham Museum of Art

The Birmingham Museum of Art brings France to the Magic City

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February 11, 2026

When the Super Bowl kicks off this weekend, Alabama won’t just have fans watching — it will have its footprint on the field. From college programs across the state to […]

AL Football

Alabama football talent takes the Super Bowl field this Sunday

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February 6, 2026

This February, The Pizitz Food Hall is giving Birmingham plenty of reasons to step away from the desk and rediscover lunch downtown. With crave-worthy featured menu items from its diverse […]

Ono Poke bowls

The Pizitz Food Hall brings Birmingham back for lunch this February

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February 3, 2026

This past summer, I experienced a treat I didn’t expect would happen again in my lifetime. A covey of bobwhite quail made their summer home in the acreage around our […]

Holding on: a steady future for the bobwhite quail in Alabama

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February 2, 2026

Cold weather pairs with warm food—it’s a natural law, right up there with gravity and inertia. Short days and chilly nights call for places that offer more than a meal: […]

Cork and Cleaver

An Alabama local’s guide to cozy, cold-weather dining

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January 29, 2026

There are places in North Alabama that do not just sit in the past–they carry it with them. You walk through the door and the pace changes. The light feels […]

Harrison Brothers Hardware

Step into Huntsville’s living time capsule at Harrison Brothers Hardware

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January 28, 2026

Walking into Ben’s Bread feels like settling into a grandmother’s kitchen: it radiates cozy. Some customers chat with each other as they eat sourdough croissants on lush couches by a […]

Ben's Bread

Ben’s Bread: a Tuscaloosa bakery that feels like home

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January 27, 2026

After seeing the small outdoor “Mice on Main” animal sculptures displayed in downtown Greenville, SC, Lucy Orr, a junior in high school at the time, wanted a similar attraction for […]

Sculpture of Turtle

Discover Alabama history along Decatur’s Turtle Trail

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January 21, 2026

For 40 years, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival has stood as one of the South’s most enduring cultural institutions—a place where language, imagination, and community converge in Montgomery, the state’s capital. […]

stage at Shakespeare Festival

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival celebrates 40 years of storytelling

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January 20, 2026

Given that the town of Tuscaloosa predates the statehood of Alabama, the city’s seen some things—and so have its buildings. Among them, the historic Drish House stands as a remarkable […]

Drish House

A look inside Tuscaloosa’s historic Drish House

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January 19, 2026

While I have plenty of family from The Gulf Coast who I’ve enjoyed a basket of crab claws with, I’m hesitant to admit that I never tried West Indies Salad […]

West Indies Salad

West Indies Salad: the story behind the Gulf Coast staple

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January 14, 2026

“There’s so much to do!” Emma Gilbert responds when I ask how the new year is going for her–and that, she believes, is a good problem to have. Gilbert has […]

Emma Gilbert

How Emma Gilbert is painting a more colorful Alabama

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January 13, 2026

Tucked away in the charming city of Cullman, Alabama, lies a site that inspires awe in visitors from near and far: the Ave Maria Grotto. This peaceful and artistic destination […]

Ave Maria Grotto

A Pilgrimage to the Ave Maria Grotto: A North Alabama Treasure

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January 12, 2026

In this memoir, Alicia Varnedoe traces her journey back to the woods of her childhood, where family backpacking trips in the Sipsey Wilderness became an early education in resilience—and a […]

Sipsey River

Backpacking with Dad in the Sipsey Wilderness

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January 9, 2026

Need a getaway for just the two of you? How about a rustic, romantic weekend in North Alabama? There are many lakeside cabins, mountaintop chalets, and bluff-top rooms all across […]

Mentone cabin

Rustic getaways for two in North Alabama

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January 7, 2026