The city is located in Western Alabama, Tuscaloosa is a warm and friendly city with a variety of activities to activities for all the family. Those who love history can explore the city’s history at the Jemison-Van De Graaff Mansion. Art fans can admire some amazing pieces of work by some of the most renowned American art artists in the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art. Tuscaloosa Museum of Art. Families can stroll around or enjoy a picnic at Lake Lurleen State Park or Snow Hinton Park, which provide playgrounds for kids.
We suggest that you contact the restaurants and attractions ahead of your trip to confirm the current hours of operation.
1. Bama Belle
The Bama Belle is one of the top Tuscaloosa attractions. Beautifully restored and well-maintained riverboat that is a pleasure boat, the Bama Belle is docked at Medeiros Point on the Black Warrior River and provides sightseeing tours as well as private rentals for special occasions.Â
The first time it was built in the year 1970, the riverboat was named Captain Ann as well as being in use for tours in Opryland in Nashville prior to its move from Nashville to Destin, Florida, and was renamed”the Emerald Queen. The boat changed its name to named the Bama Belle in 2001 and is operating tours on the Tuscaloosa Riverwalk ever since. The boat has an onboard restaurant as well as a full-service bar that offers a selection of different tours, from excursions for day trips to dinner cruises, as well as private rentals for special events.
2. Children’s”Hands-On” Museum (CHOM)
The Children’s hands-on Museum of Tuscaloosa provides an immersive and interactive place that lets children explore and discover, as well as develop through games. The museum has a variety of interactive exhibits and displays that encourage touching, feeling, and listening to help children understand.
It is located on three floors. the museum offers more than 25 programs for youngsters of all ages, that range from a model of an actual Choctaw village as well as a working farmers market, to an art studio and a Japanese house, and a space station. The museum also provides various educational and community-based activities and caters to special events like birthday parties as well as other celebrations. The museum’s Children’s Hands-On Museum is open from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am until 5 pm, and on Saturdays between 10:00 am and 4:00 at night.
3. Druid City Brewing Co Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Druid City Brewing Company is a craft brewery located on 15th Street in Tuscaloosa that produces six full-time brews and offers tours and tastings. It was founded in 2012 with two taps of beer The brewery has since grown to provide six well-known beers.
These include Druid City Pale Ale, Druid City Wheat, Riverside Saison, Lamplighter IPA, Tuscaloosa Stout, and Downtown North Porter. Its Druid City Taproom is open all week long for tours and tastings. It has a comfortable atmosphere with a gorgeous outdoor patio featuring cornholes and a huge selection of vinyl and a warm, friendly staff available to answer your questions in relation to the brewery’s beers.
4. Edelweiss Germany Coffee Shop and Bakery
The Edelweiss German Coffee Shop and Bakery is a classic German cafe located in Temerson Square in downtown Tuscaloosa. The cozy cafe-style cafe serves traditional German food items like German pretzels, bread, cakes, and pastries, as well as other European food items, along with an extensive selection of meals and breakfast items, and a variety of drinks and coffees.
The cafe is a comfortable and friendly atmosphere that draws people from all over the world to stay for a while, enjoy the tasty food, and enjoy a taste of Germany within the city of Tuscaloosa. Edelweiss German Coffee Shop & Bakery Edelweiss German Café and Bakery are open from early breakfast, lunch, and tea in the afternoon every day of the week.
5. Gorges House Museum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The museum was built in 1829. Gorgas House Museum is a museum situated on the University of Alabama campus that contains original furniture as well as collections of artifacts from the 19th century, as well as other memorabilia and objects and is the most enduring structure on campus.
It is named after the Gorgas family who made it their home from 1879 to 1953. It first was used as a hotel for the campus as well as a student dining hall. It is the only one of four structures located on campus that survived Union troops who set it on fire in 1865. It is now placed as a part of the National Register of Historic Places. Its Gorgas House Museum is open from 9:30 am until 4:00 pm from Monday through Friday. The museum is accessible on guided or self-guided tours.
6. Haunted Tuscaloosa Tours
Visit Tuscaloosa’s haunted spots in a different and thrilling manner with the Haunted Tuscaloosa Tour. Tours start and end at the historical Drish House, hailed as the most haunted residence in Alabama, and then continue to several other locations within the city which tell a hair-raising story of the dark past of Tuscaloosa.
Tours are conducted in a vintage 35-seat trolley bus and are conducted by experienced tour guides, who will share their enthusiasm for the spooky stories of Tuscaloosa’s past. The tour lasts for a period of 1.5 hours. The tour takes 16 places and three of them require some walking, so comfy shoes are suggested.
7. Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion
The Jemison-Van De The Graaff Mansion sometimes referred to as the Jemison-Van Graaf-Burchfield House, is a historical home located in Tuscaloosa which is famous because of its significance in architecture. It was designed by the well-known architectural designer John Stewart, the 26-room Italianate mansion was constructed by Robert Jemison, Jr. who was a prominent local businessman and politician.
The mansion had been a home for private use from 1955 when it was converted into a library. It was later converted into publishing houses, and then a historic house museum. It is included as a part of the National Register of Historic Places. The Jemison Van de Mansion is open between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm on Monday through Friday, all year long.
8. Lake Lurleen State Park Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The park is located on the banks of Lake Lurleen, 9 miles north of Tuscaloosa in the direction of Northport, Lake Lurleen State Park is a state park and a scenic oasis that offers a wide range of leisure and outdoor activities.
It is home to 250 acres of Lake Lurleen and a 23-mile trail system, Lake Lurleen State Park is a popular recreation spot with a modern campsite as well as picnic areas, barbecuing grills and pavilions, and playgrounds for children and an activity center and fishing beaches, fishing piers, swimming and sunbathing, boat rentals, launch areas, and RV storage facilities.
The park is home to an extensive network of trails that range from easy to moderately difficult, that are suitable for mountain bikers and hikers, and also includes a nature center, which has many exhibits and displays of local nature and fauna and a beach that is open to the public for sunbathing and swimming and paddleboats to enjoy a day in the water.
9. Mercedes-Benz Factory Tour Tuscaloosa, Alabama
It is the Mercedes-Benz Factory in Vance, Alabama offers guided tours of the factory, offering visitors the chance to see the rich story of one of the world’s most well-known automakers directly.
The modern visitor center guides visitors through the story of the German automaker, which has been producing cars within Vance, Alabama, for more than 20 years. The center tells the story with a range of intriguing exhibits, displays, and photographs along with models of classic cars.
The center also displays authentic Mercedes-Benz race vehicles and concept cars, in addition to the classics. It offers an online shop that sells a range of Mercedes-Benz-branded merchandise, clothing as well as other items related to cars as well as gifts. It is open to visitors from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm. Mercedes-Benz Factory Visitor Center is open from Monday to Friday from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm. Tours are also available. be scheduled.
10. Moundville Archeological Park, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
It is located upon The Black Warrior River in Hale County located near Tuscaloosa The Moundville Archaeological Site, also called Moundville Archaeological Park, is an important Mississippian cultural site dating from the 13th-16th century.
It was once the political and ceremonial central point of a regionally organized Mississippian culture The site covers an area of 185 acres and is comprised of 29 mounds that are placed around an oval plaza. The second-largest archaeological site within the United States of the classic Middle Mississippian era, next to Cahokia in Illinois, the Moundville archaeological site is a National Historic Landmark and is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
11. Murphy-Collins House (Murphy African-American Museum)
The Murphy-Collins House is also called”the” Murphy African-American Museum It’s a two-story bungalow built by a craftsman that dates to the 1920s. It was the home of the first black mortician who was licensed in Tuscaloosa the name of late Dr. Will J. Murphy. He was a mortician who worked in Tuscaloosa.
Murphy built the cottage himself using materials he salvaged from the state capitol building just a couple of blocks away. It burned in 1923 and is today an emblem of the lifestyle of wealthy African-Americans. African Americans during the early 1900s. The well-maintained home is now the home of the Murphy African-American Museum. It can be visited on guided tours which run every Wednesday and Saturday from 1:30 pm until 4:30 pm.
12. Snow Hinton Park
Snow Hinton Park is a green space that is family-friendly that the entire community can take advantage of with picnic pavilions that can be rented and an extensive network of mountain biking and walking trails and a sprawling play area for older children like the pyramid-shaped Spacenet which has a tube slides of 38 feet. Other amenities in the park include an illuminated sporting field, picnic tables, and barbecue grills. They also have modern bathrooms as well as drinking water and sanitation facilities electric and pavilions that are able to be rented out for special events.
13. The Alabama Museum of Natural History
The Alabama Museum of Natural History was established in 1931 and is the first museum in the State of Alabama. It is situated within Smith Hall at the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa The museum has an array of amazing exhibits that showcase the diversity of nature in Alabama through its Carboniferous Period to the Age of Dinosaurs until the end of the Ice Age.
The museum’s collections span ethnology geology, history, paleontology, minerals, and zoology. They are showcased in stunning exhibits, including the huge replica of the Eocene whale, which is located within the Grand Gallery Exhibition Hall. Other interesting exhibits in this museum are the skulls of the American mastodon as well as the Hodges meteorite, which struck an individual as it dropped to the ground in 1954.
14. FIVE, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
FIVE is a basic concept restaurant and bar located in Tuscaloosa with menus based on themes featuring five straightforward choices of high-quality food options that diners can choose from. The restaurant, created in 2011 by Charles Morgan and Cris Eddings began its first Tuscaloosa location in the year 2011 and has since expanded to include three more locations across the state of Alabama today.
The five-item lunch, brunch, and dinner menus feature Southern traditional dishes like shrimp and grits waffles, and chicken, as well as Gulf Coast platters with fried seafood, shrimp, and oysters. The theme of numerics is carried over to the wine, beer, and cocktail menus. top-quality import and domestic beer as well as white and red wines that are carefully selected for every menu.
15. The Paul W. Bryant Museum, Tuscaloosa, AL
The Paul W. Bryant Museum is situated at the University of Alabama and focuses on the past of football throughout Alabama with a special concentration on famous football player Paul W. ‘Bear’ Bryant. It was inaugurated in 1988.
The museum was created to honor the former players and coaches who played in the team that helped Bryant achieve the intercollegiate coach record for most wins and has a variety of extraordinary exhibits including the Waterford Crystal houndstooth hat, an original Daniel Moore painting celebrating the life of Bryant and a research room that contains all of Alabama’s football games on video that includes victories, losses and hilarious as well as embarrassing incidents. The Paul W. Bryant Museum is open from 9 am until 4:00 pm all week, all through the year.
16. Tuscaloosa Farmers Market, Tuscaloosa, AL
The market is located on the banks of the stunning Black Warrior River, the Tuscaloosa Farmers Market is a weekly market on Jack Warner Parkway that offers various farm-to-table goods and meals, such as fruits and vegetables, grass – or poultry and beef that is fed grain that is raised locally, Berkshire pork and farm-raised shrimp.
Market vendors also sell premium cheeses and preserves, jams made from scratch, confits, fresh eggs from the farm Jellies, freshly baked bread, pastries, and other baked treats along with handcrafted goods as well as gifts. Tuscaloosa River Market is a great place to shop for gifts.
Tuscaloosa River Market may also be hired out for special occasions and celebrations. The market has 5600 sq ft of flexible venue that is able to host seating banquets with up 400 guests, auditorium-style events that can accommodate up to 800 people, and open space for festivals that can accommodate up to 3,000 people.
17. Downtown Pedal Tours Tuscaloosa, AL
Downtown Pedal Tours offers a unique and enjoyable method to discover downtown Tuscaloosa on a bicycle that can accommodate 15 people! The company is registered and offers throughout the year, offering customized tours on the pedal bike for parties that can be up to 14 persons with a guide who guides bikes in the correct direction. Tours start and finish in Royal Fine Cleaners on University Boulevard just right across from the Federal Courthouse, last approximately two hours, and include three stops on the way. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are permitted on tours and are required to be served in plastic containers and music may be played if you wish.
18. The Downtown Gallery, Tuscaloosa, AL
In The Downtown Plaza Shopping Center, Downtown Gallery is an art gallery selling a wide range of art that is related to sports which includes works by Daniel A. Moore, as well as providing high-quality personalized framing. The gallery has a selection of Daniel Moore prints, Greg Gamble prints, rare works of classical and contemporary artists bronze sculptures, coin posters, and sporting memorabilia. The gallery additionally offers high-end framing for artworks and prints bought from the gallery or for private artworks bought elsewhere.
Also, check the Top 15 Things to Do in Sylacauga of Alabama
