Birmingham, Alabama -- It's all here

There's a place where big-city shopping, dining and attractions meet with southern charm and a low cost of living. In Birmingham, Alabama you can go from Saks Fifth Avenue at the Summit to the Bessemer Flea Market, or gourmet seafood at Ocean to finger-licking barbeque, all in an afternoon.

Birmingham Attractions

But beyond being inexpensive and technologically advanced, Birmingham has tons of one-of-a-kind attractions that help to make it a lot of fun!

Attractions for Kids

Kids absolutely love Alabama Adventure, formerly Visionland. Its Magic City USA Theme Park features tons of rides and Rampage, a world-class wooden roller coaster. Alabama Adventures' Splash Beach Water Park features Kahuna Waves, a state-of-the-art wave pool. In addition, Alabama Adventure attracts tons of big-name musical acts like Raven Symone, Jeremy Camp, Vanessa Hudgens, Aly and AJ and Salvador for their summer concert series.

The Birmingham Alabama Zoo and McWane Science Center are also kid favorites.

Historical Birmingham

Birmingham brims with history, and you can learn all about the city's roots at our various museums and landmarks. Birmingham was at the heart of the 1960's American Civil Rights Movement. Learn about the struggle for equality for African Americans at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Down the street you can see the 16th Street Baptist Church, the scene of one of the movement's darkest hours, where four little girls lost their lives in the 1963 bombing of an all-black church.

Sloss Furnace gives visitors a glimpse into Birmingham's former life as a steel town. For nearly 90 years Sloss Furnaces produced iron and helped establish Birmingham as a major industrial center. Now Sloss Furnace is a National Historic Landmark and the only 20th century blast furnace in the United States preserved as a museum. Sloss Furnace also hosts musical acts such as Live and events such as the Stokin' the Fire annual Barbeque festival and Magic City Brewfest.

Birmingham Sporting Attractions

If you love sports, whether it be golf, baseball or football, there's plenty to see in Birmingham. Golfers should be sure not to miss the Ross Bridge course, one of 11 on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Voted the world's best value and in the top 10 for best quality by Golf Digest, the Wall Street Journal said it "may be the biggest bargain in the country."

Famed golf course architect Robert Trent Jones designed the championship courses that make up the largest golf project in the world and the best public golf in America around Alabama's spectacular topography. Play along the banks of two man-made lakes connected by a spectacular 80-foot waterfall. The gristmill is a nod to site's former mining life.

If your tastes run toward a faster sport, don't miss the largest collection of motorcycles in North American and possibly the world, at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. At any time there are more than five hundred motorcycles on display out of over 900 in the Barber Vintage Motorsports collection. Established to preserve motorcycle history in the United States, the museum showcases motorcycles dating from 1904 to the present that otherwise could only be seen in books and magazines. There are 71 Harleys currently in the collection, as well as motorcycles from 17 countries that represent 125 manufacturers as well as a substantial collection of Lotus and other racecars.

But the best part of visiting the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is the Barber Motorsports Park, home of the "Porsche Driving Experience," named one of the top vacations for men in the world. Here you can drive a Porsche around a world-class 2.3 mile road course, built to FIA and FIM standards. In addition, the Barber Motorsports Park hosts numerous motorsport races including Grand-Am and Vintage Racing Series events. On October 12, 2007, the IRL's IndyCar Series conducted an open test at Barber. Word on the street is that track officials are exploring a race for the 2009 IndyCar Series season.

In Birmingham you can also go watch the Birmingham Barons, the minor-league club Michael Jordan played for in 1994 after he first retired from the NBA.

Beautiful Birmingham

Nature lovers will enjoy Oak Mountain State Park. At almost 10,000 acres it's Alabama's largest state park. There you can golf, ride some of the nation's finest mountain bike trails, swim, fish and boat in the lakeside beach, ride horses, hike and camp. For animal enthusiasts there's a petting zoo and the Alabama Wildlife Center, Alabama's oldest and largest wildlife rehabilitation center. There you can walk the Treetop Nature Trail, a beautiful, elevated walkway, to get close-up views of non-releasable hawks and owls in natural-habitat-like enclosures in the woods.

Other Birmingham Attractions

To see the quintessential symbol of Birmingham up close, and to get a great panoramic view of the city, visit Vulcan Park and Museum. The Vulcan statue was built for the 1904 World's Fair, and is the largest cast-iron statue in the world. Vulcan is the Greek god of beneficial fire, and Birmingham came to prominence for steel-making, so when no one knew what to do with Vulcan after the fair, it ended up in Birmingham, and has served as its symbol ever since.

The Summit is one of Birmingham's most popular shopping destinations. The Summit is an outdoor shopping center with world-class stores and restaurants. These include Saks Fifth Avenue, Anthropologie, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Coldwater Creek, White House | Black Market, J. Crew, Lucky Brand Jeans, Tommy Bahama, Urban Outfitters, Aldo, Clarks, Coach, Vera Bradley, Mountain High Outfitters, Bromberg's Fine Jewelry, Aveda Experience Center, L'Occitane, Sephora, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Smith & Hawken, Williams Sonoma, and Apple. Fine restaurants available at the Summit include California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Johnny Rockets and P.F.Chang's China Bistro.

The Alys Stephens Center, located in downtown Birmingham, regularly brings famous acts such as David Sedaris, Emmylou Harris, the Indigo Girls, Art Garfunkel and Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar to its gorgeous Jemison Concert Hall.

To find out more about Alabama visit 800Alabama.com, http://www.birminghamal.org/ttd-attractions-list.asp, or al.com.