Southbound

“Checking in?” a voice asks from the call box at Georgia Safari Conservation Park’s Jurassic Park–like gate. We drive down a winding gravel road along high-fenced pasture, and a childlike sense of wonder creeps in. Minutes after setting our bags down in a two-bedroom luxury safari tent, it has all three of us in its grip. A vast savanna unfurls outside the sliding glass door. Is the sky really this blue all the time?

Southwest Alabama is a land dominated by water, from Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico to the Magnolia River and the Mississippi Sound, as well as a host of lakes and lagoons, swamps and sloughs, bogs and bayous. As such, travelers along Alabama’s Coastal Connection, a National Scenic Byway, will be treated to plenty of stunning water views.

It’s been more than 25 years since a new theme park opened in Orlando—which, coincidentally, is about how long it’s been since I moved from Central Florida to Atlanta. A roller-coaster lover by birth (growing up, we always had Florida-resident season passes to the parks), now a travel writer by trade, I was more than a little excited to check out Universal Epic Universe before it opens to the public May 22. Now that I’m back, I’ve compiled 5 things you need to know.

As much as I love swimming in the ocean, combing for sand dollars, watching pelicans drift along the coast, and eating ice cream by the lighthouse, I was glad for the rain. It slowed us down enough to explore parts of St. Helena’s history.  

Picture the quintessential Southern mountain town and the village of Cashiers may come to mind. This idyllic historic community, complete with a central Village Green, sits at the crossroads of NC Highway 107 and U.S. Route 64, zigzagging roads that part the surrounding Nantahala National Forest like a comb. Despite its rising profile, thanks to a bounty of pristine nature, superb shopping, and renowned lodging, Cashier’s pace remains blissfully unhurried.

Situated at the intersection of the mighty Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, the West Virginia park boasts more than 200 historic structures. Though the West Virginia town of the same name is home to fewer than 300 full-time residents, it welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

a writing assignment about silent travel has brought me to a Trappist monastery in rural Kentucky for a week. You don’t have to be Catholic to stay here (I am not), but you do have to be totally quiet. Trappist monks live much of their lives without speaking, as a form of contemplative prayer and a means for tuning their senses to God. Retreatants are invited to experience this way of life—and refrain from imposing the opposite. For me, this doesn’t just mean not talking to anyone here; it also includes turning off all technology, all week long.

House-made drinking chocolate, artisan candy bars, and selections of craveable bonbons offer a taste of the sweet life.

Plus: 100 years of the largest hotel in Arkansas, Mississippi's first Black-owned B&B, and three new stays across the region.

The former cornerback reflects on memories of growing up in his hometown, known as the “Gateway to the Okefenokee Swamp.”