North Georgia
Wolf lures a hip and trendy 30-something crowd to its gorgeous, 30-acre winery that frames epic sunsets over Springer Mountain from its tasting-room…
Must-see attractions in Southern USA
Louisiana
The most impressive aspect of Oak Alley Plantation is its canopy of 28 majestic live oaks lining the entry to the grandiose Greek Revival–style home.
Charlotte
The Sullenberger Aviation Museum, honoring Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III, is located at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Alabama
Few sites are as iconic to the American Civil Rights movement as the Pettus Bridge. On March 7, 1965, a crowd prepared to march to Montgomery to…
Mammoth Cave National Park
With the longest cave system on earth, this national park has some 400 miles of surveyed passageways. Mammoth is at least three times longer than any…
South Carolina
Inky-black water, dyed with tannic acid leached from decaying plant matter. Bone-white cypress stumps like the femurs of long-dead giants. Spanish moss as…
Charleston
This 1738 Palladian brick mansion is the country's oldest preserved plantation house open to the public. Yep, it's older than the nation. Drayton Hall was…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
To get bread on the table, early residents of Cades Cove first had to mill their grains and corn. Above all other staples, corn was the most important…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
‘On top of Old Smoky’ is Clingmans Dome (elevation 6643ft), the park’s highest peak. At the summit, a steep, half-mile paved trail leads to an observation…
Louisville
Built in 1927 and revamped to the tune of $60 million in recent years, Kentucky's most important art museum – unaffiliated but on the University of…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
One of the park's most picturesque 19th-century buildings, the Mingus Mill is a turbine-powered mill that still grinds wheat and corn much as it has since…
Charleston
Designed in 1741, this plantation's vast gardens are the oldest in the US. Countless slaves spent years terracing the land and digging the precise…
Moundville Archaeological Park
Alabama
One of the largest and best-preserved sites of the pre-Columbian Mississippian civilization sits outside of modern Moundville, about 17 miles south of…
Kentucky
Touring Maker's is like visiting a historic theme park, in a good way. You'll see the old gristmill, the 1840s master distiller's house and the old…
ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge
Lowcountry
Formerly occupied by large rice plantations, this area fell out of use after the Civil War and was bought up by sportsmen who turned it into a hunting…
Alabama
Occupying an exceptionally beautiful stretch of the Southern Appalachians, the Little River flows much of its course over Lookout Mountain, which marks…
Lowcountry
Lush and inviting Hunting Island State Park impresses visitors with acres of spooky maritime forest, tidal lagoons and a bone-white beach littered with…
International Civil Rights Center & Museum
North Carolina
The FW Woolworth store where four black students from North Carolina A&T State University sparked the ‘sit-in’ campaign by ordering coffee on February 1,…
Vicksburg National Military Park
Mississippi Delta
Vicksburg controlled access to the Mississippi River, and its seizure was one of the turning points of the Civil War. A 16-mile driving tour passes…
Levine Museum of the New South
Charlotte
Tracing the story of the ‘New South’ that emerged from the ashes of the Civil War, this committed museum explores the years of Reconstruction, Jim Crow…
Louisville
On the Churchill Downs racetrack grounds, the museum has exhibits on derby history, including a peek into the life of jockeys and a roundup of the most…
Memphis
Don't laugh, but the most striking building in Memphis, a 32-story pyramid completed in 1991, is now home to an enormous Bass Pro Shop. Even if you don't…
North Carolina Mountains
The stupendous 315ft monolith known as Chimney Rock towers above the slender, forested valley of the Rocky Broad River, a gorgeous 28-mile drive southeast…
New Orleans
Back in the day, this was a true bayou – an overgrown morass of Spanish moss and prowling alligators. Native Americans, fur trappers and smugglers would…
New Orleans
Inside City Park, this elegant museum was opened in 1911 and is well worth a visit for its special exhibitions, gorgeous marble atrium and top-floor…
Charlotte
The US Mint opened its first-ever outpost in Uptown Charlotte in 1837, using gold mined from the mountains nearby. Transported 3 miles southeast a century…
Audubon Bird Sanctuary – Dauphin Island
Alabama
A 3-mile trail wends through 137 acres of maritime forest, sand dunes and wetlands, marking a small space that's a big deal to the world's bird population…
Alabama
This museum, a companion to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, artfully explains the roots of institutionalized racism in the USA, and…
Savannah
This uninhabited barrier island, only accessible by boat or kayak, is just south of Tybee Island and is actually double its size. The preserved land is…
Coastal North Carolina
Self-guided tours take you through the decks of this 45,000-ton megaship, which earned 15 battle stars in the Pacific theater in WWII before it was…
North Carolina Museum of History
The Triangle
For a comprehensive, evenhanded and engaging look at the story of North Carolina, immerse yourself in the state history museum. Starting with a 3000-year…
Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Atlanta
Fernbank is a supremely kid-friendly museum that explores a bunch of subjects (dinosaurs, geology, shells, IMAX-style theater), all attached to a 65-acre…
New Orleans
Esplanade is one of the most beautiful streets in New Orleans, yet barely recognized by visitors as such. Because of the abundance of historical homes,…
Lowcountry
Just 11 miles from downtown Charleston on Hwy 17N, Boone Hall Plantation is famous for its magical Avenue of Oaks, planted by Thomas Boone in 1743. Boone…
Faubourg Marigny & Bywater
The ‘locals' Bourbon St’ is how Frenchmen St is usually described to those who want to know where New Orleanians listen to music. The predictable result?…
Nashville
This unassuming modern brick building seats 4400 for the Grand Ole Opry multiple times per week. Daytime backstage guided tours are offered every 15…
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Mississippi
Here along one of the last undeveloped stretches of the coastal South, this maze of wetlands, beaches and five off-shore barrier islands is not…
Nashville
For a photogenic view of this graceful double-arch bridge, pull into the Birdsong Hollow overlook, about 4 miles south of the northern terminus of the…
Lowcountry
There's only one large-scale, working tea plantation in the US, folks, and this is it. A trolley tour takes visitors around the property, offering plenty…
Chattanooga
Set high on the river bluffs, this striking edifice of melted steel and glass – fronted by an early-20th-century mansion – is easily the most singular…
