7 Offbeat Southern United States Towns To Visit In 2025
What do a haunted hotel, a coon dog parade, and a half-alligator folk sculpture have in common? You’ll find them all in some of America’s most authentic small Southern towns, stretching from the Ozark Mountains and Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast of Georgia and Texas.
This region helped shape the country’s identity through cotton ports, railroad towns, and music born in hollers. But not all towns followed the same path. As cities turned into skylines, some places stayed proudly off-track. These are the ones hosting outhouse races, turning gas stations into museums, and keeping stories the rest of the country forgot. If you’re tired of curated travel, bury the map in the glove box and head for these seven offbeat Southern towns.
Marfa, Texas
Out in the desert, Marfa runs on art, mystery, and weird decisions. The Chinati Foundation, commissioned by minimalist artist Donald Judd, transformed a deserted military base into a surreal landscape of permanent works. Just beyond town stands Prada Marfa, a fenced-in, windowed shop filled with real Fall 2005 handbags and shoes bolted to a plain concrete slab in the dirt.
Beyond city limits, the Marfa Lights emerge without warning: mysterious orbs that flicker in the darkness and have puzzled travelers for years. Their origin is unknown, but locals have a hundred different ideas. Ask around and finish the evening at El Cosmico, where a night in a trailer, tipi, or yurt is spent gazing at a darkened sky.
Love Valley, North Carolina
In this cowboy town of under 100 people, horsepower still means an actual horse.
Love Valley doesn’t allow cars, and the only way through is by saddle. Established in the 1950s as a cowboy retreat for Christians, it still runs on dirt roads, hitchin’ posts, and saddle time. Riders pull in at the Silver Spur Saloon to grab a drink or a live show, and the Love Valley Presbyterian Church sits at its center like something plucked from a Western.
The Love Valley Arena has a regular season of rodeos, barrel racing, and trail rides throughout the year. Some sites, such as the arena itself, might be listed in Statesville, a nearby city, but they serve the people of Love Valley. Just a short distance away are the Brushy Mountain Trails on over 2,000 acres of private property open to riders 24/7.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Victorian buildings, haunted hotels, and jungle cats. Weird is the whole point here. Tucked away in the Ozarks, Eureka Springs twists around hills with steep inclines and crooked streets lined with Victorian buildings frozen in time. The headliner is the 1886 Crescent Hotel, a historic mountaintop resort turned destination for ghost tours filled with reports of haunting, tales of medical quackery, and unusual visitors.
For less raucous eccentricity, try Thorncrown Chapel, a towering glass-and-wood church bathed in sunlight. A woman spent years blanketing her house in stones, crystals, and bottle glass in Quigley’s Castle. A bit beyond town is the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, where rescued lions, tigers, and leopards are given a new chance to stalk undisturbed.
Bell Buckle, Tennessee
Antique shopping isn’t just something to do in Bell Buckle; it’s the whole reason people come. The Phillips General Store is stacked to the ceiling with enamel signs, rusted farm equipment, and antique lunchboxes. Hilltop Antiques and Livery Stable Antiques feature heirloom pieces of furniture, Southern stoneware pottery, and quirky treasures you never knew were missing. Shopping there is slow, and that’s part of the charm. When your arms are heavy or your feet are tired, sit down to fried bologna and live bluegrass at the Bell Buckle Café.
Visit in June for the RC Cola & MoonPie Festival when folks race outhouses down the street, or in March for Daffodil Day & Best of the Butts. It’s a long-running event filled with flowers, barbecue, and live music.
Abita Springs, Louisiana
If your GPS says “You’ve arrived” and you see a dogigator, you’re in the right place. Head to the Abita Mystery House, where half-dog, half-alligator Darrel resides, surrounded by bottle caps, bizarre dioramas, and homemade creatures in a vintage gas station. Just around the corner is the Abita Springs Trailhead Museum, blending small-town lore with quirky exhibits and special events.
On Sundays, the Farm and Art Market dominates the trailhead with homemade wares and fresh produce. Just beyond it is Tammany Trace, a repurposed rail line turned bike and walking trail connecting Abita to other eccentric Louisiana destinations. The strangeness around here is low-key rather than boisterous.
Galax, Virginia
In Galax, music isn’t a hobby; it’s the town’s pulse. Each year in August, this little town is transformed into a five-day, banjo-and-fiddle, feet-stompin’ jam when it hosts the Old Fiddlers’ Convention. Galax is also along The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, a 330-mile driving trail through southwest Virginia connecting major music venues, celebrations, and front-porch pickers throughout the year.
For something a little more quirky, go inside the Rex Theater, a retro jewel where the “Blue Ridge Backroads Live” radio show continues to play twangy music for a faithful audience. Follow that to the Blue Ridge Music Center, featuring exhibits and performances exploring Appalachian roots without ever seeming like homework.
Saluda, North Carolina
Only one railroad in the country was steep enough to terrify its engineers, and it ran through here. The notorious Saluda Grade, formerly the steepest mainline railroad in America, is defunct today, but its history remains vivid at the Historic Saluda Depot, where exhibits recount Saluda’s railroading history. A short street away lies Thompson’s Store & Ward’s Grill, selling groceries and fried bologna since 1890, still Saluda’s gathering place.
In July, Saluda becomes full-on Southern eccentricity for its Coon Dog Day Festival, a hound, music, and parade celebration. And nearby is the Green River Narrows, with its harsh whitewater to be trained against or dreaded by kayakers.
Nothing Curated, Everything Real
You don’t need a packed schedule, a perfect plan, or even a solid reason to visit these towns. What you will need is a sense of curiosity and a desire to see where odd roads go. These places will never be featured in top-ten travel lists. They were never built for tour buses. But they retained something the cities lost: identity without prettification. Some have paraded dogs. Others have transformed gas stations into folk museums. One has a rail line so steep it almost broke trains. If your type of trip is odd museums, old diners, crazy rivers, and a good tale to take back home, the South is still full of the kind of strange worth stopping for.
