Birmingham Zoo

205-879-0409

Zoo-Gardens exit off Highway 280

Admission charged

See more than 700 wild animals in the heart of Birmingham at the Birmingham Zoo! Visit the Alligator Swamp. Feed the lorikeets in an interactive aviary where colorful parrots will land gently on your arm and sip nectar from your cup. The Savannah brings Africa to Alabama in a naturalistic exhibit featuring giraffes, greater kudu, gazelles, and ostriches. Food, gift shop, train, and picnic areas.

Open 7 days a week from 9 to 5. (Extended summer hours from Memorial Day through Labor Day: Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 9 to 7.) Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Fair Park

205-786-8100

2331 Bessemer Rd

Admission Charged

The Alabama State Fairgrounds has been the site of Birmingham's favorite fall happening -- the Alabama State Fair -- since 1892. Now called The Greater Alabama Fall Fair & Festival, there have been nearly half a million people come through its gates during this ten-day event. They come to see the latest in commercial and industrial technology, the finest in agricultural and livestock achievements, the most beautiful creations in the arts -- and they come to have a wonderful time.

Call for schedule and hours of operation

McWane Center

205-714-8300

200 19th Street North

Admission Charged

McWane Center at McWane Center, science becomes an adventure for all -- and on a grand scale. With the largest combination of an IMAX Dome Theater and interactive science center in a four-state region, McWane Center offers education, exploration and entertainment for visitors of all ages. For the very young, there's Just Mice Size, a miniature world sure to delight. For kids a little older, there is a phenomenal fresh and salt-water aquarium in the World of Water. It’s family education and entertainment at its best.

Open September-May, Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm, Saturday: 10am-6pm, Sunday: Noon-6pm.  June-August, Monday-Saturday: 10am-6pm, Sunday: Noon-6pm. Ruffner Mountain Nature Center

205-833-8112

1214 81st Street South

Admission Free Just minutes from downtown, the Ruffner Mountain Nature center offers visitors over 500 acres of unspoiled woodlands. The nature center features seven miles of trails suitable for both experienced hikers and Sunday strollers.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Rickwood Field

205-458-8161

Admission Free America's baseball heroes played here-Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and others. Rickwood is America's oldest standing baseball park, where movies about the history of the game have been filmed. Vintage billboards and an antique style press box take you back to a bygone era before player’s strikes and celebrity endorsements.

Call for directions

Southern Museum of Flight

205-833-8226

4343 73rd Street North

Admission Charged The history of manned flight can be seen at the Southern Museum of Flight, from Wright Brothers memorabilia and early 20th century biplanes to modern day jets.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark

205-324-1911

2032nd St. N.

Admission Charged For almost ninety years the giant Sloss Furnaces produced pig iron, iron that fed Birmingham's foundries and mills. Now recognized as a National Historic Landmark, Sloss Furnaces is open to the public as a museum of industry. Here is history you can touch and smell. With its massive furnaces and web of pipes, and its tall smokestacks, Sloss tells of Birmingham's dramatic rise to prominence as the South's foremost industrial city.

Call for dates and hours of operation

Vulcan Park   (Currently undergoing repairs and renovation)

205-328-6198

St. S. and Valley Avenue.

Admission Free to See The largest cast-iron statue in the world, Vulcan stands atop Red Mountain, his torch lifted high above the city. Cast in the image of the mythical Roman god of fire and forge, the statue represented the area's vast mineral resources as Alabama's exhibit in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.