Fairhope, Foley & Mobile
Geographically, Fairhope is located on the east side of Mobile Bay. Fairhope got its name from a preacher in Ohio. In the early 1900s a preacher from Ohio sent a scouting party “down south” to find a place he could take his congregation that wouldn’t be so cold. When the scouts returned, they told of this amazing space on the eastern shores of Mobile Bay. Upon hearing about this area, the preacher said, “It sounds like we have a fair hope of being successful in that area.” They moved to the area and the name stuck.
Fairhope has a wonderful, vibrant, thriving downtown area with multiple restaurants, shops, stores and businesses. There is a wonderful waterfront park that has a pier, beach and miles of walking trails. It is a wonderful area to spend a day. No parking meters!
Foley is about a half hour southeast of Fairhope, close to the Alabama Gulf Coast. The city of Foley, Alabama was named after its founder John B. Foley who arrived in the state from Chicago in the early 1900s. He used some of his own funds to construct a railway line, and the first station opened in the city in 1905. Today, the same railroad station is home to the city museum, and there’s much more to discover, too.
It has a nice walking downtown with lots of shops and restaurants. There are lots of local events at the park at the corner of McKenzie and Laurel. When we were there, there was a BBQ cook-off in the park. No parking meters!
Mobile is a thriving city at the top of Mobile Bay. There is so much history here. It is the epitome of old-world charm and grace. It is about a half hour northwest of Fairhope. Mobile is a wonderful historic area with lots of restaurants, small shops and businesses on Dauphin Street. The people are friendly, the history abounds. It is a wonderful walking area. We have been here several times. No parking meters!
Attractions
Fairhope Municipal Pier: Fairhope’s municipal pier is the town’s “town square.” It is a bayfront park with a 1/4-mile pier, beach swimming, picnic areas, landscaped rose garden, benches, walking trails, duck pond, restrooms, marina and restaurant (opening 2024).
OWA (Foley): This is a planned recreation and entertainment area. There is a huge indoor and an outdoor water park with an amusement park (including a roller coaster). For the older set, there is a “downtown” area with shops, restaurants, a cinema and a phenomenal distillery selling moonshine.
Melvin Roberts Cedar Street Park and Nature Trail (Foley): This is a wonderful city park with 3 baseball fields, 4 lighted tennis courts, a basketball court, a covered pavilion, a playground, and a nature trail with a gazebo.
Cotton Bayou Public Beach and Gulf Shores Public Beach: There are multiple beaches in the area. All are beautiful. The downside for the beaches in southern Alabama is the cost to enter (including state parks) and the cost for parking. Most of the beaches are between the gulf waters and multi-story hotel, apartments and condos. If you are staying at one of these locations, parking and beach access is free. If you are driving in, you get to pay.
USS Battleship Alabama (Mobile) is part of a memorial park on the waterfront in Mobile. In May 1962, when the government announced the Alabama was going to be scrapped, a group of people envisioned the Alabama as being the anchor attraction of a Veterans Memorial Park to be located in Mobile. Since opening in 1965 the park has had more than fifteen million visitors. Plan to spend a full day exploring all there is to offer.
Historical Homes (Mobile): Make sure you plan time to check out all the amazing historical homes in Mobile. Some of the homes have tours, some you can just look at from the street. Just a few we liked:
- Condé-Charlotte Museum, 104 Theatre Street
- Historic Oakleigh House, 350 Oakleigh Place
- Bragg-Mitchell Museum, 1906 SpringHill Avenue
- Richards-DAR House, 256 N Joachim Street
Mardi Gras Museum (Mobile): Housed in an old house in historic Mobile is the history of Mardi Gras in Mobile. The Museum has several levels and multiple rooms of history, costumes, and King and Queen gowns for many years. In Mobile, Mardi Gras starts at Thanksgiving time when the king and queen are crowned. This is an amazing place!
Historical Museum of Mobile (Mobile): There are two levels of history about Mobile dating back to before Europeans entered the country. The building itself was the former City Hall (erected 1853-1859). The Mobile City Council still meets here once a year to maintain the buildings status as the oldest continuously operating City Hall in the country.
Flora-Bama
We are not really sure if Flora-Bama, is an attraction, a food and drink place or a location. It is about 45 minutes southeast of Foley. Whatever it is, it is unique and a place to not be missed. There are many stories about how the Flora-Bama Lounge, became the iconic place it is today.
In 1962 the State of Florida gave the State of Alabama two miles of beachfront land in return for the construction of the Perdido Pass Bridge. The Tampary family (Father Ted with sons Connie and Tony) decided to build a small bar and package store on the new State Line, this is the Flora-Bama. It is a restaurant, a venue for live music (5 separate stages), 5 bars, a souvenir shop and an on-the-beach bar. Words cannot describe the Flora-Bama. Just go. You won’t be sorry. Oh, and free parking for everything.
Food and Drink
Fish River Grill #4 (Fairhope) is a casual, fun, colorful restaurant on the outskirts of Fairhope. The food, especially the fish and fried green tomatoes, are made fresh to order. They only make one dessert, beignets!
Lambert’s Café (Foley) is “home of the throwed rolls”! It is a southern style casual restaurant with great food. Portions are huge! Servers walk around with more offerings of fried okra, hashed potatoes, etc. Yeast rolls are hot out of the oven, and if you put up your hands, the servers will throw the rolls to you across the room! If you leave Lambert’s hungry, it is your own fault!!
Cozumel Bar and Grill (Foley) is in the OWA planned community. It is a Mexican restaurant with a nice ambiance and a good view of the OWA ponds. The salsa was on the milder side, but had a great flavor. The margaritas were excellent!
Murder Creek Distillery (Foley) is in the OWA planned community. It offers 30 or 40 flavors of moonshine, everything from creamsicle to cotton candy. A flight of tastings was $5. The $5 goes toward the cost of purchasing a bottle.
Roshell’s Seafood Café and Family Diner (Mobile): This restaurant is a local favorite. It is nothing fancy but the breakfast is huge, flavorful and at a fair price. The wait staff was pleasant and attentive. All around a good experience, and worth the stop.
Stacey’s Olde Tyme Soda Fountain (Foley) is in downtown Foley. Opened in 1929 Stacey’s still offers large sundaes in glass.
Wintzell’s Oyster House (Mobile) is a long-established downtown restaurant and oyster house in downtown Mobile. The food is fresh, plentiful and flavorful. We loved the historical nature of the restaurant. Free parking on the street, or in the parking lot across the street.
Home Base: The Campground
For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!
We stayed at the Pirates Cove RrrrrrrrV Park in Foley, Alabama. Site 71. The park was clean and well-maintained. The staff was very accommodating. Simple check in. The sites are back in, but they are building some new sites (2024) that will be pull throughs. All sites are FHU (water-electric-sewer) on concrete. All sites with grass between sites. There were numerous trees throughout the park. 30-and-50-amp service was available. Good Verizon cellphone coverage. We had an open sky for our satellite.
It is a very nice park. This is our third time of being here. We would definitely return.
Fun Facts
Did you know Mardi Gras actually started in Mobile? Not New Orleans? While it may seem like a technicality, Mobile wins by 15 years:
- The first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when French explorers Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Sieur de Bienville landed near present-day New Orleans, Louisiana. They held a small celebration and dubbed their landing spot Point du Mardi Gras.
- As early as 1703, the French held a type of Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile. Since New Orleans wasn’t founded as a city until 1718, technically, Mobile had the earlier celebration of the two cities.
| Fairhope | Foley | Mobile | |
| Population: | 23,859 | 23,577 | 183,289 |
| Founded: | 1908 | 1915 | 1702 |
| Elevation: | 122 ft. | 79 ft. | 10 ft. |
| Average Income: | $38,551 | $29,400 | $29,293 |
| Average Housing: | $480,587 | $312,373 | $193, 806 |
| Average Age: | 45 | 52 | 38 |
Websites:
https://www.fairhopeal.gov/
https://cityoffoley.org/
https://www.cityofmobile.org/
Summary
This is a wonderful area of Alabama. There is much to explore. And based on some amazing forethought, much of the east side of Mobile Bay in the area of Fairhope is all public land. There is a long stretch of Fairhope where there are parks, walking paths and access to fishing piers and public beaches. It is so unusual for a town to be so dedicated to public access to the waterfront.
Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!
Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads
It’s a lifestyle
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| No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. AI has not been used to create any of the content in this blog or website. All of the photos in this blog and website were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington. |
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