Everyone books Atlanta or Nashville when they head to the American South. Birmingham, Alabama — the self-styled Magic City, sitting against the foothills of the Appalachians — is making a case to change that. AFAR has already named it one of its top places to travel in 2026, and UK travellers have an extra hook: a partnership between the city and Birmingham City FC linking the two Birminghams through football.
The first reason to come is dinner. The city now counts more than sixty James Beard honourees and nominees among its restaurants, plus eleven spots recognised by the MICHELIN Guide. The range is the real selling point. Automatic Seafood & Oysters plates Gulf-sourced fish; Chez Fonfon and La Fête do neighbourhood French bistro classics; Bottega covers Italian; and Helen downtown turns out Michelin-level Southern cooking over hardwood coals — think warm angel biscuits with whipped syrup butter. Then there's barbecue, because Alabama: Saw's BBQ and Miss Myra's Pit Bar B Q are solid starting points for the state's famous white sauce. For a nightcap, Adiós pours Mexican spirits in a plant-filled room decked out with Oaxacan art.
Food aside, Birmingham carries real historical weight. It was a flashpoint of the Civil Rights Movement, and the Historic Civil Rights District is essential. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute walks you through the fight for equality; across the road, Kelly Ingram Park was where children marched against segregation in 1963. Nearby 16th Street Baptist Church, bombed that same year with the loss of four young girls, holds the Wales Window — a stained-glass memorial funded by Welsh donations and created by artist John Petts, installed in 1965 as a mark of solidarity from across the Atlantic.
There's more variety than you'd expect for a city this size. Petrolheads get the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, one of the world's largest motorcycle collections, inside an 880-acre motorsports park with a 17-turn circuit hosting races year-round. The world's largest cast-iron statue — Vulcan, the Roman god of fire — tops Vulcan Park and Museum, where a 159-step climb to the observation tower buys you city-wide views. Jazz fans can trace the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the legacies of Erskine Hawkins of "Tuxedo Junction" fame and experimental pioneer Sun Ra. And when city sightseeing wears you out, Red Mountain Park is minutes from downtown: over 1,500 acres with 18 miles of hiking and biking trails and even a sensory trail.
Who's it for? Anyone who's already ticked off the big Southern cities and wants somewhere with genuine dining credentials, an important civil rights story and enough outdoors and motorsport on the side to fill a long weekend. It works as a fly-in destination or as a stop on a broader Alabama-and-Georgia road trip, and it's considerably less crowded than its better-known neighbours.
