Sightseeing Tours
Friday, August 9

Tour 1: A Tour for the Senses
8:30am – 12:30pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 1 itinerary.

Registration Fee: $35

Start the day at beautiful Aldridge Gardens, known nationwide for their specially-bred hydrangeas. Here we’ll also get a taste of the sweet honey provided by the bee population of the gardens. At the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, we’ll have a tasting of herbs and homegrown tomatoes from their fresh garden center, along with a tour of parts of this 67-acre spread. Then it’s off to the Birmingham Museum of Art, a feast for the eyes. From an extensive Wedgewood collection and French Decorative to Modern and African Art, museum exhibits are exceptional.

The Steel Away

Tour 4: 12:30pm – 4:00pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 4 itinerary.

Registration Fee: $35

We’ll start the morning at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, the country’s only such industrial site being preserved as a museum. An iron pouring will be in progress to show how Sloss and other blast furnaces built the young city of Birmingham into an industrial giant. At Vulcan Park and Museum, meet the world’s largest cast iron statue, the mythical god of fire and forge and another symbol of the city’s deep industrial roots. Then at the Negro Southern League Museum, we’ll learn how sports played a part in the lives of African-American iron workers at the turn of the 20th century. Forging ahead to the McWane Science Center, we will have a dynamic hands-on educational science making adventure.

The Slice and Zip

Tour 5: 8:30am – 12:30pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 5 itinerary.

Tour 6: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 6 itinerary.

Registration Fee: $35

A recent addition to the Birmingham scene, Topgolf is the place to strut your swing. Try your hand at hitting golf targets ranging from 25 yards to more than 200 yards, all from the comfort of private bays. Then head out for more action at Red Mountain Park for the Zip Trip, a zipline adventure high above the treetops. Experience the Hugh Kaul Beanstalk Forest, a treetop challenge course with rope and cable obstacles, and the Kaul Adventure Tower, an 80-foot-tall climbing tower with eight lanes. This is rockin’ fun!

Tour 7: A Taste of Birmingham
8:30am – 12:30pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 7 itinerary.

Registration Fee: $35

Stops along the way on this tour will please participants of all tastes. Birmingham is often referred to as the “dinner table of the South,” and you’ll find out why. We’ll try out a variety of special flavors that are integral to the city’s booming food scene. Terrific tastes are on this tour, so open yourself to new gastronomic adventures.

In their Footsteps

Tour 8: 8:30am – 12:30pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 8 itinerary.

Tour 9: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Click HERE to access the Tour 9 itinerary.

Registration Fee: $35

Follow in the footsteps of the heroes who fought for justice and equal rights when Birmingham was Ground Zero for America’s Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Credited with shaping the Civil Rights Movement here, is Bethel Baptist Church Collegeville. The church served as headquarters from 1956 to 1961 for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, led by Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth. Our journey will take us to historic Kelly Ingram Park where statuary depicts the events that took place there, including the infamous dogs and fire hoses attacks on demonstrators. Across the street, the city’s most famous civil rights landmark, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, bombed by Klansmen in 1963 killing four African-American schoolgirls was the turning point in race relations in the country. At the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, we’ll follow a series of galleries that tell the stories of a people and a movement from the 1800’s to the present.

 

Post FAM Tours

On Sacred Ground (Tour Operators Only)

Hosted by: Alabama Tourism Department

Tuesday, August 13 – Thursday, August 15

Click HERE to access the itinerary.

Experience the history, science and performance venues in the heart of Alabama on STYA Post FAM Tour “On Sacred Ground.”

Here is just a sample of what you will see on this trip as you visit Selma, Montgomery, Tuskegee and Montevallo.

You will walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, travel the historic Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, step inside the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church where King preached and participate in a reenactment of the final steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. Also on the tour is The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, both newly opened and part of America’s move to discuss a difficult past.

The U.S. National Park’s Tuskegee Airmen historic site and George Washington Carver Museum are just two sites you will experience in Tuskegee.

Performance venues include the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest such facilities in the world. The final stop is The American Village, a nationally pioneering classroom and American history and civics education center where performance opportunities are also available.

This three-day post fam departs at 9am on Tuesday, August 13, 2019 from the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel and returns to the Birmingham Airport at 1pm on Thursday, August 15, 2019.

North Alabama Dash of the Unexpected (Tour Operators Only)

Hosted by: Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association

Tuesday, August 13 – Thursday, August 15

Click HERE to access the itinerary.

Experience Unexpected Destinations in North Alabama! From Rockets & Space to Mountain & Lakes. See the studio where “Sweet Home Alabama” the song was recorded. Come see the home of Helen Keller & Jesse Owens and dine under a rock bluff and hear the music from our locals.

Come see North Alabama: Your students will never forget the Experience!