Escape to a Peaceful Oasis on Alabama's Gulf Coast

May 2020

Bounded by sugar-white sands and warm turquoise saltwater, Alabama’s Gulf Coast provides a place to escape from the mundane. As you lounge on a beach chair feeling the salty sea breeze against your skin, you finally get the chance to read that book that’s been gathering dust on the nightstand, listen to that podcast that you’ve heard so much about or take that nap that your body so deserves.

Southern Culture Meets the Stunning Gulf of Mexico

It’s a place where Southern culture meets the Gulf of Mexico. The Lodge at Gulf State Park offers a refined resort getaway with waterfront dining, outdoor recreational opportunities and picturesque views. While in the charming bayside town of Fairhope, guests can enjoy boutique shopping, take in the town’s own French Quarter and sometimes, even get lucky enough to experience a jubilee, a natural phenomenon when live flounder, crab or shrimp suddenly wash ashore by the thousands - you could also say this is a fisherman’s paradise. Here, too, young people (and those young-at-heart) take on new thrills at OWA. With 21 rides, live shows, restaurants and shops, OWA has an activity fit for everyone in the family.

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach

In Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, families make memories building sandcastles together, fishing off of the pier and hunting for seashells all while indulging in seafood as fresh as you can get it. A blend of byways and country roads thread the beach communities together, with some of the larger highways crossing Mobile Bay toward one of the largest deep-water ports in the country. Inland from that bustling scene of cruise liners and cargo ships, Mobile spreads along oak-lined lanes. Here, the region’s Civil War past is on display alongside the city’s French roots. The good times certainly roll along the Gulf where beach time is your time to do as much—or as little—as you please.