• The state of Alabama is named after a Native American tribe of the same name.
• Gulf Shores is home to Alabama’s beautiful sugar sand beaches.
• Tuscumbia in Alabama was the home of the deaf and blind author Helen Keller who was the first person with such disabilities to gain a degree.
• Montgomery in Alabama was capital of the short-lived Confederacy.
• Alabama was the crucible for the human rights movement of the late fifties and sixties.

Alabama Mini Guide:

How do I get to Alabama?
There are no direct international flights from Europe to Alabama’s biggest airport, Birmingham-Shuttlesworth, but many flights per day arrive from the east coast international airports such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta or Washington. Connecting flights to these airports from Europe and the UK are common and should be relatively inexpensive. Internal flights to get to Birmingham can be expensive but Southwest Airlines, America’s main budget airline has several routes into Birmingham which could save you money. It’s only five miles into Birmingham and public transport is available but most passengers choose to rent a car at the airport for convenience.

What can I do in Alabama?
Alabama can be all things to all people. For a relaxing beach holiday on sugar white sands that are Caribbean in all but location, head for Gulf Shores where 25 miles of beach await you. In Birmingham, the state’s largest city you’ll find the Civil Rights Institute which documents the time when the city was at the front line of the movement for change in how black people and other minorities were treated. The city’s museum also has a comprehensive exhibition on the same topic. There is still much evidence of the people that occupied the state before Europeans and across the state, memorials and museums tell of the hardship and suffering that tribes such as the Cherokee endured.