Golf Excursion

Check out some of Northern Alabama's best greens!

North Alabama is home to many beautiful and challenging golf courses. Play a round of golf on three courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail: RTJ at Hampton Cove, RTJ at The Shoals, and RTJ at Silver Lakes. You’ll find many other courses in the area that are sure to thrill every golfer.

Tour Timeline: Any Season

(Please note, depending on when flight arrives at Huntsville International Airport, optional afternoon and evening receptions or destination stops may be added.)

Destinations

Blackberry Trail

1. Blackberry Trail

The 18-hole "Blackberry Trail" course at the Blackberry Trail Golf Course facility in Florence, Alabama features 6,851 yards of golf from the longest tee for a par 72.

Oakville Indian Mounds Education Center

  • Location: 1219 County Road 187 Danville, AL 35619
  • Phone: (256) 905-2499
2. Oakville Indian Mound & Museum

The Oakville Indian Mounds Education Center is a park and museum site encompassing 122 acres of woodlands, meadows, and a large lake. Couples can choose from several outdoor sites with stunning vistas of the lake and Indian Mounds. With over 20,000 artifacts on display, the Cherokee Council House Museum serves as a unique venue for indoor weddings.

3. WC Handy Home, Museum, & Library

Contains the most complete collection in the world of the personal papers and artifacts of the “Father of the Blues.” The hand-hewn logs in the cabin are original.

4. Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts

A complex of historic buildings serving as a center for cultural activities. Galleries provide annual and rotating exhibits.

5. Pope's Tavern Museum

At one time a stagecoach stop, tavern and inn, Pope's Tavern is one of the oldest structures in Florence.

RTJ Golf Trail at the Shoals

  • Location: 990 Sunbelt Parkway Muscle Shoals, AL 35661
  • Phone: 256 446-5111, 256-446-4480 cell 334-618-
  • http://www.rtjgolf.com
6. Robert Trent Jones at the Shoals

The Fighting Joe Course at The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at the Shoals is the first Trail course to break 8,000 yards, measuring some 8,072 from the black tees. The second course, The Schoolmaster, opened in 2005.

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

7. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

Established in 1969 by a group of former FAME session musicians, this was the location where the Rolling Stones, Cher, Bob Segar, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkle, and many others created some of the most popular hits of the 1970’s. The rhythm section was eventually immortalized as “The Swampers” by Lynyrd Skynyrd in the lyrics to “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Helen Keller Birthplace

8. Helen Keller Home, Gardens and Museum

Located just a couple miles from Spring Park. The plantation home and birthplace cottage, dating back to the 1820’s are listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places. Original furnishings of the Keller family decorate the home and museum, highlighted by hundreds of Miss Keller’s personal mementos, books, and gifts from her lifetime of travel and lectures for the betterment of the world’s blind and deaf-blind.

9. FAME Recording Studios

Established in 1959, was the first successful, professional recording studio in Alabama. Arthur Alexander’s 1961 hit, “You Better Move On,” cut here, launched the famous Muscle Shoals sound. The internationally acclaimed documentary, Muscle Shoals released in 2013, told the story of FAME and its founder, Rick Hall.

10. Cypress Moon Studios

Founded in 1978, was the second location of the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio for over 25 years, where the “Swampers” continued to record hits after moving from their Jackson Highway location. Recording artists including Bob Segar, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dr. Hook, Etta James, Clarence Carter, Julian Lennon, Glenn Frey, and countless others.

Alabama Music Hall of Fame

11. Alabama Music Hall of Fame

Honors the outstanding achievements and the music of Alabamians. You’ll hear rocking rhythms and soul touching melodies as you admire the vast memorabilia from the lives and careers of more than 1,000 stars, representing all styles of America’s music.

Point Mallard Park

12. Point Mallard Park Golf Course

Championship golf course, 18 holes, 7,064 yards, par 72, Tif Dwarf Bermuda greens, chipping green, putting green, driving range, clubhouse, showers, pro shop, golf lessons, and snack bar.

Old State Bank

13. Old State Bank

The Old State Bank was one of three banks authorized by the The Alabama General Assembly in 1832. Few structures can boast as varied a past as the Bank. Since its construction, the building has weathered two depressions and a Civil War, and has served as hospital, guardhouse, bank and dance hall. Named to the National Register of Historical Places in 1972, the Classic Revival architecture of the Bank is symbolic of the period in which it was built.

Cook Museum of Natural Science

14. Cook's Natural Science Museum

he Cook Museum of Natural Science is a state-of-the-art natural science museum opening in 2019 in downtown Decatur, AL. It will provide a hands-on, immersive experience where kids can explore, interact with, and learn about nature. Families will leave the Cook Museum feeling fulfilled by their time together and inspired by the things they saw and learned. The museum will feature live animals (including bees, snakes, baby alligators, and turtles, and more), a life-like walk-in cave, saltwater aquariums with jellyfish and other ocean life, exhibits with mounted wildlife showcased in a natural habitat scene, exhibits showcasing rocks and minerals, space and our solar system, forests, arctic, deserts, rivers, streams, insects, and more.

Carnegie Visual Arts Center

15. Carnegie Visual Arts Center

The Carnegie Visual Arts Center, a not-for-profit organization, is a cultural, educational, and community-service organization providing an environment to promote learning, creation, and appreciation of the visual arts and to preserve one of the area's significant historical buildings.

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

16. Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

Offers wildlife displays, orientation video, wildlife observation building, hiking trails, and the opportunity to view a live red-tailed hawk. Many recreational opportunities including hunting & fishing.

RTJ Golf Trail at Silver Lakes

17. Robert Trent Jones at Silver Lake

Silver Lakes, which is beautifully nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, has three championship courses, a 9-hole course, and public course.

18. Noccalula Falls Park

Nestled among the trees in the park is a pioneer village, a group of rustic, hand-hewn log buildings representing a display of pioneer living conditions, included in the village is a country store, grist mill, covered bridge, pioneer home, smokehouse, blacksmith shop and more. Other park attractions include a War Memorial and Museum, botanical gardens, hiking trails, a sightseeing train, a playground, carpet golf, picnic pavilions, wedding chapel and honeymoon cabins, and meeting facilities. Wheelchair accessible.

Gadsden Cultural Arts Foundation, Inc.

19. Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts

Includes three art galleries, the Imagination Place Children’s Hands-on Museum, a 72-foot working model railroad, and the Gadsden Community School of the Arts.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Hampton Cove

20. Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Hampton Cove

The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Hampton Cove offers 54-holes of rolling terrain and challenging golf shots. The Highlands course is a traditional Scottish-Links design, while the River course features water on 16 of 18 holes and is the only trail with no bunkers.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

21. US Space & Rocket Center

Huntsville is home to the largest space museum in the world: the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Not only is America’s space program on exhibit in Huntsville, it was forged in Huntsville. We’re known as the “Rocket City” because Huntsville, Alabama is where rockets were developed that put men on the moon.

EarlyWorks Children's Museum

22. EarlyWorks

The EarlyWorks Family of Museums include the Alabama Constitution Village, the Huntsville Depot and Museum, and EarlyWorks Children's History Museum. These three museums in the heart of historic downtown Huntsville will take you on a journey back in time. Experience history as it comes to life.

Huntsville Botanical Garden

23. Huntsville Botanical Garden

Huntsville Botanical Garden is located in the heart of Madison County, right off I-565, adjacent to the US Space & Rocket Center and offers the optimal blend – wildlife, foliage, florals, trails, specialty gardens, pavilions, a butterfly house, walkways, lakes, and more.

1818 Farms

  • 24889 Lauderdale Street
  • (256) 714-3220

Located on three acres in the northwest corner of the historic village of Mooresville, AL (pop.58), 1818 Farms is named…

306 BBQ - Florence

  • 322 North Court Street
  • (256) 766-5665

306 BBQ serves authentic slow cooked, pit smoked barbecue. We serve only the highest quality beef, pork and poultry…