Some places can immediately make you think of your hometown. Maybe it’s your favorite barbecue joint or an off-the-beaten-path trail that offers stunning views of a secret waterfall. It could be a live music venue where the shows are electric, and history is carved right into the walls. It might even be a seafood restaurant that your family returns to year after year on your annual vacation on the coast. The South is a treasure trove of authentic locales that each offer an experience you can only have there. From dining on the best regional delicacies (like a Hot Brown in Kentucky or a Cuban sandwich in Florida) to listening to live music in legendary venues that range from beachfront dive bars to historic theaters, these local spots have become classics for a reason.

We asked our readers to tell us all their favorite spots in the states they call home, and they delivered with insider tips, endless personal anecdotes, and raving reviews for the places they simply can’t get enough of. Keep reading to uncover 23 local treasures, from lighthouses in North Carolina to margarita bars in Texas, that you can’t leave the South without visiting.

Alabama’s Best Banana Pudding

Dreamland Bar-B-Que

Best known for their slow-cooked, hickory-smoked ribs, this favorite barbecue joint (which started as a singular café in Tuscaloosa in 1958) has spawned into 11 locations across Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Though expertly prepared pork is the restaurant’s specialty, one of their three best-selling menu items is vegetarian . Dreamland’s banana pudding came out on top of our reader voted poll for Alabama’s best banana pudding. CEO Betsy McAtee says one of the secrets to the restaurant’s recipe is swapping Nabisco Nilla Wafers for vanilla wafers from local brand Bud’s Best Cookies.

Alabama’s Best Dive Bar

The Flora-Bama

Don’t let the official address fool you (it’s technically in Florida), Alabamians have laid claim to this iconic dive bar known for live music, fresh oysters, and boozy, milkshake-like Bushwackers since it opened on the Alabama-Florida state line in 1964. It’s hard not to have a good time here. There’s white sand between the floorboards, permanent-marker-penned love notes on the walls, and a clothesline of ladies’ unmentionables strung above the dance floor (this is a dive bar, after all). Kids can enjoy the scenery ‘til 5:30 p.m., and everybody else can hang around until they close at 2:30 a.m. On Sunday mornings, you can come back for church at 9 or 11. At the Flora-Bama, everybody’s welcome, and for many folks, their first pilgrimage to this sprawling shack on the beach begets a second one—and maybe a hundred more after that.

Arkansas’s Best Scenic Trail

Buffalo River Trail

Many scenic trail systems wind through Arkansas, but only one follows America’s First National River. The Buffalo River Trail, which begins in Ponca, accompanies the namesake waterway as it courses through 135 free-flowing miles of rich Ozark wilderness. Established in 1972, the Buffalo’s National River designation has helped to preserve its pristine natural surroundings and protect its undammed watershed.

Florida’s Best Cuban Sandwich

The Columbia

It began in 1905 as a humble saloon where trolley conductors and cigar factory workers ducked in for a slurp of strong coffee. Today, Tampa’s Columbia Restaurant is Florida’s largest eating establishment with seating for 1,700 people. Hardly anyone makes a visit to The Columbia without ordering a Cuban sandwich. Their version is set apart by a few superior ingredients: glazed ham with subtle sweetness, pork shoulder instead of pork loin, and perfect bread made locally at La Segunda Central Bakery.

Florida’s Best Snorkeling Spot

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Established in 1963 as the United States’ first undersea park, this unique state park offers a firsthand glimpse of Florida’s Coral Reef, a 350-mile coral reef system that runs from the Dry Tortugas to St. Lucie on the Atlantic coast. For 70 nautical miles around Key Largo, marine life and habitats can be seen in several ways: snorkeling and scuba diving lessons and tours, glass-bottom boat tours, and canoeing, kayaking, and paddleboarding trails. On land, boardwalks and paths meander through mangroves and tropical hardwood forests, and the visitor center holds six saltwater aquariums for more up-close views.

Georgia’s Best Live Music Venue

Fox Theatre

“The Fabulous Fox,” as the locals call it, possesses a grandeur and mystery that captures the hearts and minds of any visitor. It is a stunning example of 1920s Moorish Revival architecture that was originally designed to serve as a Yaarab Shriners temple, but in a fateful turn of events, the money ran dry. The 4,665-seat auditorium was purchased and completed by the Fox Theatre Company to convert it into one of the most distinctive theaters of all time. There are decades of music history seeping from the ornate walls of the near-100-year-old theater, and that’s perhaps what has kept it so beloved in the hearts of Georgia’s music lovers.

Kentucky’s Best Hot Brown

J. Graham’s Café at The Brown Hotel

Sit down to eat in a Kentucky restaurant—whether upscale or country casual—and there’s a good chance there will be a Hot Brown on the menu. The open-faced turkey sandwich, traditionally served warm on a thick slice of toast with bacon, tomatoes, and Mornay sauce, is a headliner on the Bluegrass State’s long list of culinary contributions. For the true original, you’ll have to head to J. Graham’s Café at The Brown Hotel, where the dish was born. There, chef de cuisine Arkan Bajalani is a caretaker of the historic recipe, a responsibility he takes seriously. As the Hot Brown approaches its centennial, its enduring popularity can be chalked up to its time-tested recipe and the staff’s refusal to go on autopilot, even when creating hundreds of the sandwiches daily.

Louisiana’s Best Gumbo

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant

Gumbo recipes are a dime a dozen in Louisiana. But none are as sought after as the legendary gumbo z’herbes at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans. The restaurant is busy year-round, but on the Thursday before Easter Sunday lines stretch down the sidewalk. It’s the only time of the year (known by Catholics as Holy Thursday) that the restaurant serves its special green gumbo, as it has done since the late chef-owner Leah Chase started the tradition in 1973. Her grandson Edgar “Dook” Chase has taken the mantle in the kitchen, along with other family members who keep the place running up to Leah’s standards.

Louisiana’s Best Jazz Club

Preservation Hall

There aren’t many places in New Orleans’s French Quarter that don’t sell alcohol and still draw a packed house. Preservation Hall has been doing just that since 1961, attracting tourists (and yes, locals, too) 360 nights a year to hear live jazz by some of the city’s best—and oldest—musicians. But this New Orleans institution isn’t frozen in the past. A major expansion is underway, with plans to add an 8,000-square foot theater, additional performance spaces, and more. There’s no doubt this jazz club will be rocking and rolling for many years to come.

Maryland’s Best Public Garden

Brookside Gardens

You could spend sunrise to sundown (coincidentally the park’s open hours) exploring this 50-acre garden wonderland and still not see it all. In spring, the Trial Garden bursts with 10,000 flowering bulbs. The Azalea Garden holds more than 300 species of the popular plant, and the Aquatic Garden is a great place to spot water-loving plants growing alongside two ponds. Traverse the Woodland Walk where an elevated boardwalk creates a great viewing platform to see 124 species of native Maryland plants. A stroll in the garden has never been lovelier.

Maryland’s Best Crab Cakes

The Crab Claw

Crabs are the official state food of Maryland, but crab cakes are what really have people talking. At the Crab Claw, a no-frills waterfront seafood shack on the Eastern Shore, the crab cakes come broiled or fried (your choice), but are always packed with blue crab meat and little else. This family-owned spot started out as a clam and oyster shucking house in the 1950s, and eventually became a restaurant 1965. Note: The restaurant is open seasonally from March through October, so don’t plan your trip for colder months.

Mississippi’s Best Blues Venue

Ground Zero Blues Club

If it’s a Saturday night in Clarksdale–or a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday night for that matter–there’s only one place to be, and it’s Ground Zero Blues Club. Inside a former cotton grading warehouse, where the walls are plastered with old concert posters and heavily graffitied with Sharpie signatures, the audience is buzzing with anticipation for the night’s show. Waitresses deliver baskets of hot tamales, catfish, and fried green tomatoes to tables cramped with mismatched chairs and people as diverse as the world flags hanging overhead. Music lovers–young and old, local and visiting from all over the globe–have converged in this corner of Mississippi to hear the blues in the place it was born. Fun fact: The joint is co-owned by Academy Award-winning actor, native Mississippian, and blues lover Morgan Freeman.

North Carolina’s Best Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Close your eyes and imagine a lighthouse. If you picture a conical brick tower wrapped in black-and-white candy cane striping that’s set against a backdrop of gently blowing sea oats and waves lapping onto a sandy beach, then you’ve probably got Cape Hatteras in mind. One of seven remaining lighthouses that dot the North Carolina coast from Brunswick to the Outer Banks, Cape Hatteras is the tallest and most recognizable of all. In fact, at 198 feet from ground to lightning rod, it is the tallest one in the country. The lighthouse is currently undergoing renovations, so you can’t trek the 257 steps to the top just now, but when it reopens the views will prove to be just as stunning as they ever were.

North Carolina’s Best Diner

Poole’s Diner

Diners often feel frozen in time, and while Poole’s has the retro chrome edging, and red artificial leather stools and booths, you won’t find anyone in old-school waitress uniforms. Instead, tattooed servers shuffle around under dim lighting to a Phoebe Bridgers soundtrack. They’re happy to walk you through the long list of craft beers, or decipher the menu handwritten in chalk above the door. Chef and owner Ashley Christensen serves up thoughtfully modern takes on comfort food, be it roast chicken or potato salad. There’s not a speck of iceberg lettuce or a sticky Heinz bottle in sight. If you go, the Macaroni Au Gratin is a must.

Oklahoma’s Best Chicken Fried Steak

Cattlemen’s Steakhouse

The picture-perfect cowman’s paradise of Stockyards City is true to its stripes—and nowhere is this more evident than in Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. While the restaurant is known for its aged and charcoal-grilled steaks, another regional classic is perfected here. Chicken-fried steak became a part of Oklahoma’s state meal in 1988, and the version they make at Cattlemen’s is worthy of that revered status. Most chicken-fried steaks feature beef that has been pounded into a hamburger-like consistency, but at Cattlemen’s the meat is tender while retaining its texture, more akin to filet than ground meat. It’s coated with a light, flour-based breading and fried to crisp, almost flaky excellence. The special seasoning kicks it up a notch, and in an ingenious move, the peppery cream gravy is served underneath the steak, preventing any trace of sogginess from compromising the breading before you scarf it all down.

South Carolina’s Best Shrimp and Grits

Soby’s

Soby’s, a modern Southern restaurant in the heart of downtown Greenville, has been paving the way for the city’s culinary revolution since 1997. Like its ever-growing hometown, Soby’s shrimp and grits recipe is constantly evolving. Over the years, it has appeared on the menu in five distinct versions, each reflecting the personal taste of the chef at the helm of the operation, but all offering something new to love. Past iterations have been done in the style of New Orleans barbecue shrimp and included pairings like kiwi and Watauga County ham. Chef Kyle Swarzendruber’s version, which has been on the menu since 2022, features a cream-based sauce flavored with piquillo peppers, tarragon, Grana Padano, and Andouille sausage. No matter what form Soby’s shrimp and grits takes on, South Carolinian’s agree: It’s more than worth ordering.

South Carolina’s Best Island

Hilton Head Island

Hilton Head’s tenure as a beloved Southern vacation destination dates to 1956 when Charles Fraser, whose family owned much of the island, sparked the creation of the area’s first resort called Sea Pines Plantation. The same year, Hilton Head became connected to the mainland via a bridge, and a steady stream of visitors–and now 40,000 locals–have been shuttling to the offshore oasis ever since. For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Hilton Head as a bustling resort town and world-class golfing destination, at its core, the island is still the same wild escape it’s always been. And it’s that authentic spirit that has kept it so revered among generations of Southern vacationers.

Tennessee’s Best Attraction

Dollywood

Since opening in 1986, Dollywood has evolved with the times as much as the country star herself. What started as a small-scale park with a restaurant, a handful of rides, and a replica of her Tennessee Mountain Home, is now the state’s most visited attraction. In May, The Dolly Parton Experience will open with an interactive museum, a “Behind the Seams” exhibit of her wardrobe, DreamSong Theater, and a retired tour bus. Like the star who has transcended country music to be loved by people from all over the world, Dollywood has that special something, which means an already-fun amusement park has achieved legendary status like Ms. Parton herself.

Tennessee’s Best Music Venue

Grand Ole Opry

The program known today as the Grand Ole Opry got its start in 1925 when National Life and Accident Insurance Company flipped the switch on a new Nashville radio station. It began hosting the “WSM Barn Dance” radio program which, in 1927, was re-named the “Grand Ole Opry.” Though the show has been hosted in different locations over the years, it has made its home in the custom 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House since 1974. Today, it hosts a big schedule of concerts featuring artists such as Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, and Old Crow Medicine Show, as well as the annual Country Music Association Awards and special programming honoring members of the Opry family. The faces and voices singing the tunes may change, but the Grand Ole Opry always lives on.

Texas’s Best Margarita

Joe T. Garcia’s

This Fort Worth institution’s lushly landscaped gardens have seating capacity for up to 1,000 diners, and on balmy nights, they easily meet that quota. People order huge plates of Tex-Mex, but they’re just an accessory to the main attraction: Joe T. Garcia’s illustrious margaritas. Behind the colorfully tiled bar, hundreds of margaritas are rimmed with salt and sent out at lightning speed. The house drink has a famously potent reputation, but the restaurant’s other citrus-laced renditions are just as tantalizing. Have one any way you’d like, from infused with sweet strawberry to refreshingly frozen. You can order it skinny or top shelf. They’ll even bring you a pitcher while you queue for a table. These aren’t the wishy-washy, watered-down limeades of your neighborhood chain. These are the real deal.

Virginia’s Best Historic Site

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is regarded as the "Oldest Living History Museum" in the U.S. Founded as the capital of the Virginia colony in 1699, colonial history has been painstakingly preserved here. While Virginia is full of historic places and landmarks that together tell the story of our nation's founding, nowhere is the past easier to imagine—or rather, immerse yourself in—than at this one-of-a-kind attraction and historic site.

West Virginia’s Best Park

New River Gorge National Park & Preserve

One of West Virginia’s best treasures is New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, a 70,000-acre park where the world’s second-oldest river cuts through a vast valley of geological formations and ecological wonders. Visitors can get a great tour of the park via the 83-mile scenic drive that offers stunning views of the river and its gorge around every twist and turn of the three-hour journey.

West Virginia’s Best Food Festival

West Virginia Strawberry Festival

The West Virginia Strawberry Festival celebrates this bounty and is one of the longest-running festivals in the state. The first inaugural event was held in 1936 in support of the state’s fruit growers. It took a 5-year pause during World War II but resumed after the war’s end. In the years that have followed, the strawberry-centric celebrations have only grown. Now the festival is a week-long event with a host of family-friendly events taking place in downtown Buckhannon. The schedule includes a parade, Strawberry Auction, Strawberry Run, canoe race, road bowling, carnival, live music, quilt show, fireworks, and classic car show. And of course, there are plenty of sweet strawberry desserts to go around.