The Rough Guide to the USA: The South (Travel Guide eBook)

By Rough Guides

Practical travel guide to USA: The South featuring points-of-interest structured lists of all sights and off-the-beaten-track treasures, with detailed colour-coded maps, practical details about what to see and to do in USA: The South, how to get there and around, pre-departure information, as well as top time-saving tips, like a visual list of things not to miss in USA: The South, expert author picks and itineraries to help you plan your trip.

The Rough Guide to USA: THE SOUTH covers: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas

Inside this travel guide you'll find:

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to USA: The South, from off-the-beaten-track adventures in the Ozarks to family activities in child-friendly places, like Nashville or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Memphis.

PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS
Essential pre-departure information including USA: The South entry requirements, getting around, health information, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, food and drink, festivals, culture and etiquette, shopping, tips for travellers with disabilities and more.

TIME-SAVING ITINERARIES
Carefully planned routes covering the best of USA: The South give a taste of the richness and diversity of the destination, and have been created for different time frames or types of trip.

DETAILED REGIONAL COVERAGE
Clear structure within each sightseeing chapter includes regional highlights, brief history, detailed sights and places ordered geographically, recommended restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and major shops or entertainment options.

INSIGHTS INTO GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for soaking up the local history, scenic drives and sampling the music scene.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS NOT TO MISS
Rough Guides' rundown of Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Nashville and Jackson's best sights and top experiences help to make the most of each trip to USA: The South, even in a short time.

HONEST AND INDEPENDENT REVIEWS:
Written by Rough Guides' expert authors with a trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, to help to find the best places in USA: The South, matching different needs.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Comprehensive 'Contexts' chapter features fascinating insights into USA: The South, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.

FABULOUS FULL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Mercer-Williams House and the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway

COLOUR-CODED MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys for quick orientation in Charleston, Atlanta and many more locations in USA: The South, reduce need to go online.

USER-FRIENDLY LAYOUT
With helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781789197303

Rough Guides

Rough Guides are written by expert authors who are passionate about both writing and travel. They have detailed knowledge of the areas they write about--having either traveled extensively or lived there--and their expertise shines through on every page. It's priceless information, delivered with wit and insight, providing the down-to-earth, honest read that is the hallmark of Rough Guides.

Book preview

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Contents

Introduction to The USA: The South

Where to go

When to go

Author picks

things not to miss

Itineraries

Basics

Getting there

Getting around

Accommodation

Food and drink

Festivals

The outdoors

Travel essentials

The South

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Kentucky

Tennessee

Alabama

Mississippi

Arkansas

Contexts

History

Books

Small print

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Introduction to The South

No two people may agree on the precise boundaries of the southern United States, but you’ll know when you get there. This book takes in the eight southern heartland states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Take a road trip through the region, and you’ll face so many reminders that you’re in a world apart – a land within a land, with its own food, its own music, its own architecture, its own landscapes, its own traditions, and above all its own history.

Mark Twain put it best, as early as 1882: In the South, the [Civil] war is what AD is elsewhere; they date everything from it. Several generations later, the legacies of slavery and The War Between the States remain evident throughout. The eight states covered in this book were in fact joined in the Confederacy by five other states that also seceded from the Union – Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas. To this day, however, they continue to form the core of the South. That said, more than 150 years on from the end of the fighting, there’s much more to the South than the Civil War.

While there’s been talk of the emergence of the so-called New South ever since the war, there’s no denying that change has finally come. Much of that is due, of course, to the other epic historical clash that shaped the destiny of the South: the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The extraordinary intertwined history of those struggles, a century apart, makes any tour of the South fascinating: it’s simply impossible to travel any distance without encountering endless echoes of the two. Tracing the footsteps of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, from his birthplace in Atlanta to his ministry in Montgomery and his tragic death in Memphis is an inspirational, and potentially transformative, pilgrimage.

Let’s not forget the sheer joy of visiting the South. For many travellers, the most exciting aspect of touring the region has to be the chance to immerse oneself in its magnificent music. It was the South that gave the world rock’n’roll, and the blues before that, and its contribution to music in general cannot be overstated. There’s something very compelling about entering the shotgun house where Elvis Presley grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, or exploring Graceland in Memphis, or standing at the very crossroads outside Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. The real thrill, though, comes when you realise that the music of the South is still alive, and still means something to people, whether you get that from a honky-tonk in Nashville, a juke joint deep in the Delta, from a backwoods barn dance in rural Appalachia, or Rev Al Green preaching the gospel at his church in Memphis.

And then there’s the food. Succulent, smoky, aromatic barbecue is the obvious stand-out, with each state and city boasting its own fiercely-cherished favourite recipe, but there’s also the wonderful seafood of the Atlantic coast, especially the Low Country Boils of the sea islands, and the general glories of soul food, as found in cities like Atlanta and Memphis. You can even visit the first-ever KFC in, you guessed it, Kentucky.

The Southern experience is also reflected in a rich regional literature, documented by the likes of William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison and Harper Lee.

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Smoky Mountains National Park

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Where to go

Unless you have three weeks or more to spare, you won’t be able to attempt anything like a comprehensive tour of the South, and you’ll have to focus instead on a few specific states. The good news is, each state is rewarding in its own way, and each also embodies the full diversity and richness of the region as a whole. Away from the urban areas, perfumed with delicate magnolia trees, the classic scenery of the Southern consists of fertile but sun-baked farmlands, with undulating hillsides dotted with wooden shacks and rust-red barns, and broken by occasional forests.

North Carolina, for a start, encompasses several utterly different regions. The windswept Outer Banks, the wispy skein of barrier islands that protect and parallel the Atlantic shoreline, have a remote and timeless atmosphere that can barely have changed since the Wright Brothers first took to the skies, or indeed since the lost colonists of Roanoke vanished into thin air. Inland, the dynamic communities of the Research Triangle – Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill – have an appealing cultural energy, while further west still the tail end of the Appalachian mountains offers spectacular scenery, along the Blue Ridge Parkway in particular, and vibrant, liberal-leaning, beer-chugging towns like Asheville. Keep heading west beyond the state’s southwestern corner, and you can dip through Great Smoky Mountains National Park en route to Tennessee or Kentucky.

Continue south along the coast from North Carolina, on the other hand, and, logically enough, you’ll find yourself in South Carolina. Assuming you’re not twenty years old and new to the delights of alcohol, you may not choose to linger in Myrtle Beach, but tranquil Georgetown, in the heart of the rice-growing Low Country, make a relaxing stop. Further south, South Carolina’s sea islands – St Helena Island for example, reached via a bridge from Beaufort – are quite delightful, and home to the Gullah-speaking descendants of African Americans left to build their own communities at the end of the Civil War. The state’s real highlight, though, is the elegant city of Charleston, which built its fortunes on slavery and was appropriately where the first shots of the war were fired.

Another hundred miles southwest, just across the state line in Georgia, Savannah is even more beautiful, with its dreamy squares draped in Spanish moss. Strolling its cobbled riverfront quayside, you could almost be in Portugal or some sleepy Mediterranean port, while the town itself has a seductive, laidback charm. Quite a contrast with state capital Atlanta, a go-getting metropolis of six million people that has spearheaded the growth, and redefined the image, of the entire South. Its Sweet Auburn district stands as a haunting memorial to the city’s greatest son, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, but with its museums and galleries, vibrant neighbourhoods and sheer energy, Atlanta has its eyes very much focussed on the twenty-first century. Georgia has its fair share of stimulating smaller towns too, like Athens and Macon, and also some dramatic scenery, from the Dahlonega district in the north to the Okefenokee Swamp in the south.

Kentucky offers a different vision again, its rolling rural splendour encapsulated by its shimmering, bucolic Bluegrass Downs. It’s best known these days for its horses, with stud farms peppering the meadows around Lexington, and Louisville hosting the iconic Kentucky Derby. Further attractions range from Jim Beam’s whiskey distillery in Clermont and Colonel Sanders’ first-ever fried chicken diner in Corbin to the birthplaces of American heroes Abraham Lincoln and Muhammad Ali.

For music lovers, Tennessee is arguably the most rewarding state of all. Sprawling superbly beside the Mississippi, Memphis lives up to every expectation. Even when you’ve toured Sun Studio, listening to Elvis’ original recordings in the very room where the stardust descended, and swooned over the precious relics on display in Graceland, you’ve only scraped the surface. Still to come: an evening in the clubs of legendary Beale Street; a sermon in Al Green’s church; soaking up the vibes in the Stax Museum. Nashville too is electrifying, from the Country Music Hall of Fame to the Grand Ole Opry, by way of countless unsung honky-tonks. And Tennessee has its own share of natural treasures, including the nation’s most-visited national park, Great Smoky Mountains. Be sure to pay your respects to Dolly Parton in Dollywood en route.

Alabama owes its primary role on tourist itineraries to the legacy of the Civil Rights era. It was in state capital Montgomery that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr served as pastor of his first church, and took on leadership of the bus boycott prompted by Rosa Parks – it brings home the raw courage of those days to see quite how close King’s church stood to the capitol itself. In nearby Selma you walk the fearsome bridge where marchers confronted state troopers in 1965, while Birmingham in the north has its own share of evocative memorials. Of course, there’s more than that to visiting Alabama than that, including plenty of wonderful soul food, and charming Mobile, a miniature New Orleans down on the Gulf Coast.

While Mississippi may have the most tainted history of any southern state – in the words of Nina Simone, Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam – it too holds a proud place in the story of popular music. It was the haunting flatlands of the Mississippi Delta that spawned the delta blues, which as Muddy Waters memorably put it … had a baby, and they named the baby rock’n’roll. The delta’s main town, Clarksdale, is filled with shrines to blues greats, while in every direction sleepy time-forgotten settlements hold further memories.To the west, Natchez and Vicksburg are venerable river ports, while to the east Oxford was home to the definitive Southern novelist, William Faulkner, and Tupelo gave the world Elvis himself.

Finally, Arkansas has its own share of Delta ports, most notably Helena, and its own Civil Rights legacy too, most conspicuous at Little Rock, but it also the holds the one-of-a-kind spa town of Hot Springs, and some gorgeous untrammelled scenery in the (jagged) shape of the Ozark Mountains.

As a rule, public transport in the rural South is poor to the point of non-existence. You’ll see far more if you rent a car, which will also enable you to explore to the backwaters – the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Ozarks and the Mississippi Delta to mention but a few. In any case, it’s best to take things at your own pace – you’ll find things to see and do in the most unlikely places. Incidentally, if you harbour fantasies of travelling through the South by boat along the Mississippi, note that only luxury craft make the trip these days.

The Big Muddy

"I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river

Is a strong brown god – sullen, untamed and intractable."

St Louis-born T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

North America’s principal waterway, the Mississippi – the name comes from the Algonquin words for big and river – starts just ninety miles south of the Canadian border at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and winds its way nearly 2400 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, taking in over one hundred tributaries en route and draining all or part of thirty-one US states and two Canadian provinces.

The Big Muddy – it carries 2lb of dirt for every 1000lb of water – is one of the busiest commercial rivers in the world, and one of the least conventional. Instead of widening toward its mouth, like most rivers, the Mississippi grows narrower and deeper. Its delta, near Memphis, more than three hundred miles upstream from the river’s mouth, is not a delta at all, but an alluvial flood plain. Furthermore, its estuary deposits, which extend the land six miles out to sea every century, are paltry compared to other rivers; gulf currents disperse the sediment before it has time to settle.

The Mississippi is also, in the words of Mark Twain, who spent four years as a riverboat pilot, the crookedest river in the world. As it weaves and curls its way extravagantly along its channel, it continually cuts through narrow necks of land to shape and reshape oxbow lakes, meander scars, cutoffs, and marshy backwaters. A bar could operate one day in Arkansas and then find itself in dry Tennessee the next, thanks to an overnight cutoff.

A more serious manifestation of the power of the Mississippi is its propensity to flood. Although the river builds its own levees, artificial embankments have, since as early as 1717, helped to safeguard crops and homes. After the disastrous floods of 1927, the federal government installed a wide range of flood-protection measures; virtually the entire riverfront from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the sea is now walled in, and it’s even possible to drive along the top of the larger levees.

While it’s no longer feasible to sail Twain’s route for yourself, riverboat excursions operate in most sizeable river towns. The Delta Queen Steamboat Company http://deltaqueen.com) offers longer cruises on a reconstructed paddlewheeler. Some trips start on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, potentially allowing passengers to board in Louisville, Nashville or Chattanooga before joining the Mississippi to cruise past Memphis, Vicksburg and Natchez en route to New Orleans.

When to go

It’s well worth visiting the South any time of year, but if you’re free to go whenever you choose, then spring and fall have to be the top picks. At the height of summer, in July and August, the daily high temperature throughout the region is mostly a very humid 90°F, and while almost every public building is air-conditioned, the heat can be debilitating. May and June are much more bearable, and tend to see a lot of local festivals, while spring wildflowers are at their most spectacular somewhat earlier. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for example, is ablaze with colour in April, while Macon celebrates its ravishing Cherry Blossom Festival in mid-March.

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Savannah, Georgia

Copyright (c) 2018 mark stephens photography/Shutterstock. No use without permission.

The fall colours in the South are every bit as beautiful as in New England, and visiting in that season is a lot less expensive and congested. On the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina the fall foliage is generally at its multihued best in the middle two weeks of October, while further south, on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Tennessee and Mississippi for example, displays have peaked in recent years during the first two weeks in November.

Daily minimum temperatures in the depths of midwinter can drop pretty low – freezing January nights are not unusual in Atlanta and Memphis, for example – but the cold is seldom likely to impact on travel plans. Only in the Smokies is there much risk of roads being closed by snow. While you’d have to be unlucky to coincide with a hurricane, on the other hand, the hurricane season along the Atlantic seaboard does lasts a full six month. In principle, between June and November, a tropical storm might hit anywhere from Mobile on the Gulf Coast up to Charleston, South Carolina.

Average temperature (°F) and rainfall

To convert °F to °C, subtract 32 and multiply by 5/9

Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Atlanta, GA

Max/Min temp 51/35 55/39 63/46 73/53 81/61 88/68 91/72 89/71 84/65 73/54 61/44 54/40

Days Rainfall 9 7 8 6 7 7 9 7 5 5 6 7

Charleston, SC

Max/Min temp 57/44 61/48 65/53 73/60 80/68 86/75 88/77 87/77 84/73 76/64 66/53 61/49

Days Rainfall 6 5 6 5 5 7 8 9 7 4 4 6

Memphis, TN

Max/Min temp 47/34 51/38 61/45 70/53 79/63 87/70 89/72 88/71 83/66 73/54 59/44 51/39

Days Rainfall 7 7 9 8 8 6 7 5 5 5 7 8

Mobile, AL

Max/Min temp 59/43 63/48 70/54 77/60 84/67 90/75 91/76 91/77 87/72 79/62 68/51 62/48

Days Rainfall 6 6 6 5 5 9 10 10 6 4 5 7

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Author picks

Our author recommendations don’t end here. We’ve flagged up our favourite places – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a special restaurant – throughout the Guide, highlighted with the ê symbol.

Our hard-travelling author has visited every corner of this huge, magnificent region and picked out his personal highlights.

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Charleston, SC

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One-of-a-kind accommodations If you find yourself tiring of chain motels, the South holds some totally out-of-the-ordinary lodging options. Take the Hike Inn at Georgia’s dramatic Amicalola Falls (see page 80), which can only be reached by a five-mile hike into the Appalachians, or the Shack Up Inn outside Clarksdale, MS (see page 110), where you sleep in a sharecroppers’ cabin on a Delta cotton plantation. And you can even sleep at Graceland, in Memphis, TN, which now has its own Guest House (see page 96).

Round table restaurants At least once, you’ve got to eat Southern specialities like fried chicken with some real-life Southerners. At round table restaurants like Mrs Wilkes’ in Savannah, GA (see page 85), Monell’s in Nashville, TN (see page 102), and Walnut Hills in Vicksburg, MS (see page 113), diners share collective meals at large communal tables.

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Alabama State Capitol

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Best beaches The southern states may be not as famous for beaches as neighbouring Florida, but superb strands abound if you know where to look. For a full-on party resort, there’s always Myrtle Beach, SC (see page 66), but spellbinding and often sublimely peaceful alternatives include Hammocks Beach, NC (see page 60); St Simons Island in Georgia’s Golden Isles (see page 86); and wonderful Hunting Island, SC (see page 73).

Most evocative Civil Rights memorials There’s no separating the inspirational story of the Civil Rights struggle from the personal journey of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Visit his birth home and final resting place in Atlanta, GA (see page 76), then continue to his first church in Montgomery, AL (see page 107), before paying tribute at the site of his assassination in Memphis, TN, now home to the uplifting National Civil Rights Museum (see page 94).

Classic diners The South has to be the spiritual home of the much-loved all-American diner. Prime specimens include Big Ed’s in Raleigh, NC (see page 62), and Weaver D’s in Athens, GA (see page 81), but how about two from the movies? The Arcade, a former haunt of Elvis in Memphis, TN (see page 97), played itself in Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, while the Whistle Stop Café in Juliette, GA (see page 82), starred in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.

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15

things not to miss

It’s obviously not possible to see everything that the South has to offer in one trip. What follows is a selective and subjective taste of the region’s highlights: unforgettable cities, spectacular drives, magnificent parks, spirited celebrations and stunning natural phenomena. All highlights are colour-coded by chapter and have a page reference to take you straight into the Guide, where you can find out more.

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1 Savannah, GA

See page 82

Mint juleps on wide verandas, horse-drawn carriages on cobbled streets, romantic garden squares draped with Spanish moss; this historic cotton port remains the South’s loveliest town.

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2 The Kentucky Derby, Louisville, KY

See page 89

Even if the race itself lasts just two minutes, Derby Day, at the start of May, is the culmination of a wild and unforgettable two-week spree.

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3 Martin Luther King National Historic Site, Atlanta, GA

See page 76

Georgia’s dynamic capital is home to its most evocative sight, encompassing King’s birth home and the church that witnessed his baptism and funeral.

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4 Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

See page 64

The South’s most spectacular drive meanders through the North Carolina mountains, taking in stunning vistas, wild-flower-studded hiking trails and Appalachian bluegrass shows.

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5 Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NC

See page 59

Windswept dunes and saltwater marshes flank sun-dappled beaches at this wild North Carolina barrier island.

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6 The Mississippi Delta, MS

See page 110

The birthplace of the blues holds an irresistible appeal, with the legendary crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul, outside funky little Clarksdale, as the obvious first port of call.

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7 Asheville, NC

See pages 65

A great base for adventures amid North Carolina’s wild western mountains, this hip outdoors-oriented town is at the centre of a buzzing craft-beer scene.

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8 Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC

See pages 71

Historical Charleston, on the South Carolina coast, takes on a festive air during its extravagant early-summer celebration of the performing arts.

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9 Memphis, TN

See page 92

This sleepy city on the Mississippi is especially thrilling for music fans: quite apart from Elvis, you could spend days checking out Beale Street, Sun Studio, the Stax Museum, and Al Green’s church.

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10 Hot Springs, AK

See page 115

A fascinating slice of Americana, Hot Springs is a hugely enjoyable throwback to an earlier kind of tourism – and yes, its springs are still active.

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11 Barbecue

See page 42

There’s no better place to sample the quintessential American cuisine – be it smoked ribs, pulled pork or brisket – than the southern states.

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12 In the Footsteps of Elvis, MS & TN

See page 112 and 95

Walk a mile in the King’s shoes – blue suede, naturally – by making a pilgrimage from his birthplace in Tupelo, MS, to his home and burial site in Memphis, TN.

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13 Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN & NC

See page 103

At its most colourful in spring, this dramatic forested wilderness welcomes more than twice as many visitors as any other national park.

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14 Montgomery, AL

See page 107

Alabama’s state capital, where Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus, is filled with haunting reminders of the Civil Rights era.