24 Hours in Birmingham, Alabama

I’ve been wanting to visit Birmingham since I had a lot of spare time during he pandemic and looked up a bunch of interesting cities around the country. But flights from Houston to Alabama have always been overpriced so it took until 2023 for me to make the trip to my ____ state. Yes, I’ve crossed another travel goal off the list! Instead of paying for an expensive flight, I decided to fly to Atlanta to visit a few of my sorority sisters and drive the 2 hours to Birmingham for a day trip. I wish I could have had more time in Alabama because there were way more coffee shops on my list than I had time for, but they will have to be saved for another time (should I visit Mobile one day?).

Relevator Coffee

There were so many cute coffee shops that I saw on Google Maps prior to my trip that I had a very hard time choosing which one to go to on my day trip. I went with Relevator because it had the most positive reviews and was centrally located.

Bandit Patisserie

Our original plan was to grab some croissants and head to our tour pickup spot, but because we completely forgot that there was a time zone change during the drive from Atlanta (east coast time) to Alabama (central time), we actually had an extra hour to spare and got to enjoy our deliciously flaky pastries in the cutest little French inspired bakery.

Birmingham Breadworks

We also had time to make another stop at this popular bread factory where I got to eat the most delicious cheese and ham biscuit. I had such a hard time choosing between all the amazing options in their display case though- definitely a place I will be returning to next visit.

Civil Rights Walking Tour

This walking tour was the catalyst in my desire to visit Birmingham. It had rave reviews on Tripadvisor and Viator and for a good reason. The half walking half small bus tour is hosted by the family owned Red Clay Tours and the tour guide was amazing and so knowledgable about Birmingham’s role in the Civili Rights Movement. I learned so much about a horrible and embarrassing time in our nation’s history- so much that isn’t recorded in our school’s history books and so much that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to learn about. We visited significant neighborhoods in Birmingham and covered the Children’s March and 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (although I discovered on this trip that Birmingham was nicknamed Bombingham because there were bombs going off all the time due to the KKK’s constant racist presence in the city), and the Bethel Baptist Church.

16th Street Baptist Church

Armed with knowledge from the morning’s Civil Rights tour, I took an additional tour of the famed 16th Street Baptist Church that was the sight of the bombing tragedy where 4 innocent little black girls were murdered when a bomb detonated inside the Church. I wanted to personally tour the inside of the Church to further understand and visualize how something so ugly and horrendous could have happened in such a dark moment in our nation’s history. Tours can be booked Monday to Saturday on the hour between 9am and 3pm and cost $10 per person.

.Railroad Park

This green space located in the middle of Birmingham downtown is so peaceful and sunny- we had a lovely time walking around and enjoying the great weather Birmingham had that Saturday. There was even a marriage proposal set up going on! The city did a great job revitalizing this area and making it into a walkable neighborhood.

It was such a fulfilling day! Our drive to Birmingham from Atlanta was only 2 hours each way (no traffic!), but Birmingham was a completely different vibe from Atlanta and I was so glad I made the trip to learn about a dark time of our nation’s history. Our tour guide recommended 2 other Alabama cities, Montgomery and Selma, to experience more history so I plan to make other day trips the next times I need to go to Atlanta!