Experience the best of Gulf Shores

Gulf Shores sits on a barrier strip of the Alabama coast between the Gulf of Mexico and the lagoons behind it, with fine white quartz sand and low dunes dotted with sea oats. Gulf State Park holds a long pier, trails across freshwater lake and marsh, and a beach, and the neighbouring town of Orange Beach adds marinas and charter boats. Dolphins often swim close to shore.

At the western end of the peninsula, Fort Morgan, a brick fort of the 1830s, saw fighting in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, and a short ferry crosses the bay mouth to Dauphin Island. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge protects dunes, marsh and forest that migrating birds use in spring and autumn, and beaches continue east into Florida's Panhandle.

Gulf shrimp, oysters and fresh fish come in daily at the docks, and tables are set with fried seafood, gumbo, boiled crab and key lime pie. Water stays swimmable from late spring until well into autumn, and winters are mild.