As the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings visitors from around the globe to the United States, many of the moments capturing attention online have little to do with soccer itself. International travelers have filled social media with reactions to barbecue, Buc-ee’s, oversized portions, free refills, and regional food traditions. Yet one theme rises above the rest: hospitality.

Again and again, visitors have expressed surprise at the warmth of strangers, the ease of striking up conversations, and the generosity they have encountered along the way. For many, the most memorable part of their American experience has not been a landmark or attraction, but an unexpected act of kindness.

Alabama knows hospitality perhaps better than anyone else, and our state has become part of that story.

Finding Family in Scottsboro

During a Southern road trip through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, Irish traveler Amy Jane (@justamyjane) and her family stopped at Liberty Restaurant and Diner in Scottsboro after searching for a place to eat along the drive from Guntersville to Chattanooga. What they expected to be a quick lunch became one of the defining moments of their trip.

“We just had the best restaurant experience that we will probably ever have in our lives,” Amy said in a TikTok video that has since reached hundreds of thousands of viewers.

From the moment they walked through the door, the family says they were met with the kind of hospitality they had only heard about. Their server, Destiny, patiently answered questions about unfamiliar Southern dishes, offered recommendations, and made them feel immediately at home. Amy’s husband Scott tried catfish for the first time and declared it “cooked to perfection.” The couple also received their first introduction to hush puppies, banana pudding, and homemade Southern desserts.

While the food left a lasting impression, it was the people who stayed with them. Staff members stopped to chat about their travels, gifted them a souvenir magnet, invited them to sign the restaurant’s wall alongside other visitors, and even treated them to desserts to sample. Before they left, the owner quietly picked up their check.

“The hospitality and kindness of these people have overwhelmed me,” Amy later wrote. In a review posted after returning home, she reflected that her family’s “hearts were broken” leaving Scottsboro and that they felt as though they had “gained some family” during their brief stop in Alabama.

“We left a piece of our heart in Liberty Diner,” she wrote.

Discovering the Best Seafood on Alabama’s Beaches

For British travel creators @2passports1dream, it was Alabama’s Gulf Coast that challenged their assumptions.

In a video captioned, “We were wrong about American food,” the couple explained that they had grown up believing American cuisine was largely synonymous with fast food. Sitting on an Alabama beach, surrounded by white sand and fresh Gulf seafood, they realized how incomplete that picture had been.

They marveled at the quality of the meal, the beauty of the coastline, the kindness of the people, and the fact that one of their favorite dining experiences in the United States had taken place in Alabama. The couple said that if someone had told them five years ago they would be eating some of the best seafood of their lives on an Alabama beach, they would never have believed it.

Together, the stories reveal something that statistics and tourism campaigns often cannot. Visitors may arrive for the soccer, but the experiences they remember most often happen far from the stadiums. Sometimes it’s a plate of banana pudding in Scottsboro, and sometimes it’s fresh seafood overlooking the Gulf. And sometimes it is simply the feeling of being welcomed by Alabamians, who exude hospitality and kindness in everything we do.

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