The 12 Can't-Miss Towns In The Southern United States
The small towns most worth a long drive in the South each have one experience that exists only there, and a whole trip is easy to build around it. In Louisiana's Cajun country, that might be a Saturday breakfast with a live zydeco band on stage, and in the hills of south-central Tennessee, a whiskey tasting at the end of a distillery tour in a dry county.
The 12 towns here are spread across nine Southern states, and the biggest of them is home to only about 25,000 people. Several are worth timing for the holidays, because in December a storyteller in northeast Tennessee performs Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and after dark, cars circle a nearly round lake in the Florida Panhandle under strings of Christmas lights.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Following the white blazes of the Appalachian Trail on foot is the best way to see Harpers Ferry, since the trail runs right through the middle of town. Along the way are the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's visitor center, where a 10-foot 3-D map shows the whole trail, and the streets of Lower Town, where the John Brown Museum is open while the Civil War Museum is closed for repairs.
At The Point, at the bottom of Lower Town, the Shenandoah River meets the Potomac, and from there the trail continues over a footbridge across the Potomac into Maryland. On the Maryland side, hikers can keep going up to the overlooks on Maryland Heights, where the town and both rivers are laid out below.
Jonesborough, Tennessee
December is the month for holiday shows at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, the northeast Tennessee town often called the Storytelling Capital of the World. On Saturday, December 19, Tim Lowry tells Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol there, and the same day the Christmas Market is set up on the center's plaza between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Afro-lachia Christmas and a duo show with Josh Goforth and Michael Reno Harrell are also on the center's December program. Earlier in the month, the 48th annual Progressive Dinner is held on Saturday, December 5, and a week later, on December 12, the lighted Christmas parade starts downtown at 6 p.m.
Bryson City, North Carolina
In Bryson City, the Polar Express has been boarding at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot downtown since early November, bound for the North Pole, where Santa Claus climbs aboard for the ride back and stops in every coach. The season runs through January 3, and plenty of December departures are already sold out.
The quieter trip is about six miles into Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Lakeview Drive, where the road ends at a tunnel that visitors walk through. Closer to town, the Deep Creek waterfall loop, 2.4 miles round trip from near the end of Deep Creek Road, passes three waterfalls, and the rooftop patio at Mountain Layers Brewing Company on Everett Street has a view of the Tuckasegee River.
Dahlonega, Georgia
The Dahlonega Gold Museum is in the old courthouse in the middle of the town square in Dahlonega, where Georgia 400 ends in the north Georgia mountains, about 65 miles from Atlanta. Wine tasting rooms are spread among the shops around the square.
At Consolidated Gold Mines, staff lead 40-minute tours more than 200 feet below the surface, and the mine is open seven days a week all year, rain or shine, so the weather never cancels a tour. Above ground, anyone who would like to keep looking can sift the water-fed flume boxes at Gemstone Grubbin', and each visitor on the tour gets gold panning instructions and then a turn at the pan.
Lynchburg, Tennessee
In Lynchburg, a small town in south-central Tennessee, the standard tour of the Jack Daniel Distillery costs $35 and takes about 1.8 hours. On the town square, the old jail across from the courthouse is now a free museum, and bottles can be bought at the distillery's White Rabbit Bottle Shop. Christmas in Lynchburg is traditionally held on the first Saturday of December, ending with a nighttime parade and the lighting of the Jack Daniel's Barrel Tree at the visitor center. Moore County, which includes Lynchburg, is a dry county, so the sampling of assorted Jack Daniel's whiskeys at the end of the tour is the way to taste it in the town where it is made.
Oxford, Mississippi
Square Books, the independent bookstore on the town square in Oxford, in the hills of north Mississippi, is a good place to pick up a William Faulkner novel before visiting his house. For the holidays, Holly Jolly Holidays at mTrade Park has a Walk of Lights and an outdoor ice rink called Oxford on Ice between November 21 and January 3.
That house, Rowan Oak, opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday, and admission is $10, cash only. It is closed on Thanksgiving and the day after. The house closes at 4, but the grounds around it stay open every day until dusk, which leaves time for a walk under the trees once the doors are locked.
Lockhart, Texas
At Smitty's Market in Lockhart, 30 miles south of Austin, customers walk past the brick pits to order lunch, and the meat is sold by the pound and handed over on butcher paper. Smitty's is just off the courthouse square, where the Caldwell County Courthouse stands in the middle.
Dinner can be a second round of brisket. Kreuz Market, under a mile away on North Colorado Street, stays open until 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 8 on Fridays and Saturdays.
The first Saturday in December is the night to stay late. A Dickens Christmas in Lockhart has magicians, jugglers, a master falconer, and choirs at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library on South Main Street, and the day ends with an illuminated night parade.
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Saturday morning in Breaux Bridge, in Louisiana's Cajun country near Lafayette, begins at Buck & Johnny's on Berard Street, which opens at 8 a.m. for its zydeco breakfast with a zydeco or Cajun band on stage. The plates run to boudin-stuffed omelets and crawfish étouffée over grits, and plenty of diners get up to two-step between bites.
Out at Lake Martin, part of the Atchafalaya Basin swamp, the Nature Conservancy's 2.5-mile levee trail at Cypress Island Preserve closes through the summer for alligator nesting and is open again in daylight hours. The town's Crawfish Festival is held on the first weekend of May, and on the way out of town any time of year, Poche's Market & Restaurant has a meat market for Cajun cuts to take home.
Dauphin Island, Alabama
The Mobile Bay Ferry leaves from beside Fort Gaines, on the eastern tip of Dauphin Island, and crosses the mouth of Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan in about 40 minutes, so the trip starts and ends at a fort. Fort Gaines has cannons and a working blacksmith, and from the top of its walls, the Sand Island Lighthouse is visible offshore.
Before boarding, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary has about three miles of self-guided trails through maritime forest and marsh to the beach. At the Estuarium, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's public aquarium, live baby alligators and seahorses are on view indoors, with stingrays and young sharks from Mobile Bay in an outdoor exhibit. At least one ferry runs all year, and the 6:30 p.m. trip from the island is dropped until daylight saving time returns.
DeFuniak Springs, Florida
Lake DeFuniak, in the center of DeFuniak Springs in the Florida Panhandle, is a nearly round, spring-fed lake, and Circle Drive goes all the way around its shore. An afternoon walk on the loop passes the Victorian homes on the streets around the lake and the Chautauqua Hall of Brotherhood, which stands on the shore. The Walton County Heritage Museum, in the old train depot, is a stop for earlier in the day, since it is open Tuesday through Saturday and closes at 2 p.m.
After dark, between the day after Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, lights are strung around the lake for Christmas Reflections. Last season, cars paid $5 a person to drive Circle Drive between 5:30 and 9 p.m., and walkers went in free.
Fernandina Beach, Florida
On the first weekend of every month at Fort Clinch State Park, on Amelia Island about 25 miles northeast of downtown Jacksonville, a living-history garrison fires cannons and demonstrates battlefield skills. The next garrison weekend falls on December 5 and 6. The fort is open daily until 5 p.m., entry to the park is $6 per vehicle, and the park's beach is the place for shelling and hunting shark teeth.
Downtown Fernandina Beach has its own December weekend. During Dickens on Centre, December 11 through 13, Centre Street has a Christmas market, costumed characters on two stages, holiday movies at the Old Vic Theatre, and a Parade of Paws on Saturday morning, and admission is free, though some extras are ticketed.
Beaufort, North Carolina
Wild horses live on the Rachel Carson Reserve, directly across Taylor's Creek from the waterfront in Beaufort, on the North Carolina coast, close enough that the boat ride over is a short one. Island Ferry Adventures leaves from 610 Front Street every 30 minutes, all year when the weather allows, and on the reserve, visitors keep at least 50 feet from the horses. The trail starts at the west end of Town Marsh, and a boardwalk on Carrot Island is another way in. On the mainland side, several of the town's best restaurants are on Front Street, Beaufort Grocery Company among them. Farther along the street, the North Carolina Maritime Museum is free, and at its Watercraft Center, traditional wooden boatbuilding is taught and demonstrated.
With each of these towns built around its one thing, the calendar matters as much as the map. The ferry off Dauphin Island runs all year, and Rowan Oak and the gold mine in Dahlonega keep their regular hours through the winter, but a few of these experiences come on a single date. The hardest one is the first Saturday in December, which falls on December 5 this year. Jonesborough's Progressive Dinner is that evening, the Dickens Christmas in Lockhart ends with its illuminated night parade, and the Barrel Tree at the Jack Daniel's visitor center in Lynchburg is traditionally lit that same night, while the Fort Clinch garrison is out on Amelia Island for its first weekend of the month. One car can make only one of them, so that Saturday is worth claiming early, and the lights around Lake DeFuniak can wait for another night in December.
