Vacation ideas in AL/TN/GA area?

I’m trying to come up with some place to go within, say, 5 hours driving distance from Huntsville, AL, during or close to Thanksgiving week. We’d prefer outdoor activities, but not camping. We were thinking about the Gulf coast but it appears most places are still recovering from hurricane damage. Any other ideas?

If you want the coast, check out Saint Simon’s Island in Georgia. One of my favorite places. The beaches aren’t as pretty as the Gulf but it’s still a very pretty place. If you’ve never been to Savannah you might like that too. Do the trolley tour then you can pick out the places you want to see and stuff you want to do. If you’ve never been to Lookout Mountain/Rock City that would be fun. Also Chattanooga has some nice attractions along the river front now. The aquarium is really great. Course you could always go to Birmingham and look at the statue of Vulcan mooning Homewood, AL. :smiley: Seriously, Vulcan’s backside looks like he’s not wearing pants. Memphis is fun too. Blues, bbq and Graceland. A vacationer’s paradise.

Gulf Shores just had their Shrimp Festival, so they’re open for business. They only put it back one week because of the hurricanes. Also, the red tide isn’t causing trouble with the seafood here like it is in Florida.

That being said, Memphis is definitely worth the trip, as pointed out by Swampy. Also, Tennessee has the PowerBall lottery and you could buy me a ticket!

I much prefer Chattanooga over Memphis. While Memphis’ tourist areas are nice, the rest of the city and surrounding area are pretty sad and depressed looking. Also it’s a slow go on the non-interstate roads from Huntsville to Memphis. Hopefully soon the State of Alabama will get off its ass and turn Route 78 into Interstate 22. It’s a better ride on 78 in Mississippi, but it’s hard to connect to the freeways once you get into Memphis.

Like Swampy said St. Simon’s is nice, but that might be a little far for you to travel from Huntsville since you said you only wanted to venture out 5 hours or so.

If you did Chattanooga, you could combine that trip with some side trips or nights in the Ft. Payne or Mt. Cheaha areas of Alabama.

Looks like they say Gulf Shores is open and I know personally that Florida’s Gulf Coast from Ft. Walton to Apalach is in fine shape. The red tide has pretty much left (I was swimming in the Gulf on Sunday in crystal clear waters) and in November the hotel rates are much cheaper than in summer. Also depending on the weather, you can actually get some pretty good beach days in if it’s sunny and the temps can be about 75 degrees.

I’ve got to back up the Chattanooga voters. I was there a year and a half ago, and I loved it. I did Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Rock City, the aquarium, and some other stuff. I really liked the city.

The Georgia Aquarium is scheduled to open in Atlanta on November 23. http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ It claims it will be

Snork

I’m just impressed that Chattanooga is getting these mentions - I grew up there in the 70’s and 80’s before they did the big downtown revitalization. I’m impressed now everytime I go back there by how much it’s changed.
With Chattanooga it’s an easy drive toward Knoxville (you could tour the Mayfield Dairy! or, yeah, well there’s Dollywood a little further on) or down to Atlanta.

Actually, the entire reason I went to Chattanooga was because another Doper (whose name escapes me) did a similar “Help me plan a vacation” thread and someone suggested Chattanooga, and had a super post that had links to EVERYTHING. I never would have considered it otherwise, since Chattanooga really isn’t all that close to me.

Was it you?

How about Fall Creek Falls? My family and I went there a bunch of times when I was a little kid. It’s really beautiful.
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/parks/FallCreekFalls/
-Lil

Go with Chattanooga. The Fall colors should be lovely in the mountains. Or is that a trifle late?

I haven’t studied the geography from your location in detail, but I think I know the general area pretty well (my wife’s family has a cabin in NW GA).

Some ideas:

Gatlinburg, TN - touristy and a little cheesy, but fun.

Helen, GA: A taste of the Alps in the middle of nowhere (be sure to go tubin’ down the Chatahootchie).

Nantahala River: decent Class 2-4 white water rafting.

Cherokee, TN: fun, touristy place in the mountains. The Cherokees living there claim to be the last surviving members of their tribe. There’s a nice state park with some decent hikes and falls somewhere near there… I think its “Bald Mountain.”

Probably not - I don’t think of Chattanooga as a place for tourists to visit, probably because I grew up there and it wasn’t one for so long.

I need to start thinking of it as such, because apparently it’s become a destination as much as a day trip location.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Unfortunately the trip idea has fallen through but I’ll file this thread for future reference.