Things to Do in Baldwin County

Baldwin County is one of the most activity-rich counties in Alabama. The Gulf of Mexico to the south, Mobile Bay to the west, and a string of distinct communities in between mean the options range from world-class fishing and Gulf beaches to walkable downtowns, championship golf, and a festival calendar that runs most of the year. This guide covers the highlights across the county.

Places to Go

Gulf State Park One of Alabama’s premier state parks — 6,150 acres spanning the barrier island between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Two miles of white sand beach, 28 miles of hiking and biking trails, a fishing pier, freshwater lakes, camping, and the Lodge at Gulf State Park. Whether you’re spending an afternoon or a week, Gulf State Park is the anchor outdoor destination on the Alabama coast. gulfstatepark.com

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge Located on the western end of the Fort Morgan Peninsula, Bon Secour is one of the last undeveloped stretches of Alabama coastline. Hiking trails through coastal scrub and dune habitat, birding (it sits on a major migratory flyway), beach access, and sea turtle nesting sites. A quieter alternative to the developed beach and worth the drive to the end of the peninsula. fws.gov/refuge/bon-secour

Fort Morgan Historic Site At the tip of the Fort Morgan Peninsula, this Civil War-era fort was the site of the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. The well-preserved masonry fort and museum are open to the public. The ferry to Dauphin Island departs from nearby. ahc.alabama.gov/properties/ftmorgan

The Wharf — Orange Beach An open-air waterfront entertainment and retail district on the Intracoastal Waterway in Orange Beach. Restaurants, shops, a marina, a Ferris wheel, a movie theater, and a 10,000-seat amphitheater that hosts national touring acts. A consistent gathering point for residents and visitors year-round. thewharf.com

OWA Parks & Resort — Foley A family entertainment complex in Foley featuring a theme park with rides, a waterpark, restaurants, a hotel, and a live entertainment district called Downtown OWA. The Tanger Outlets are adjacent. A significant draw in south Baldwin County. visitowa.com

Fairhope Pier and Downtown The pier on Mobile Bay in Fairhope is one of the most photographed spots on the Eastern Shore. The walkable downtown has independent restaurants, galleries, boutiques, and cafes along tree-lined streets. The Fairhope Municipal Pier Park has bay views, rose gardens, and a public beach. Worth an afternoon on its own.

Orange Beach Waterfront and Marina The Orange Beach waterfront along Canal Road and Terry Cove offers boat ramps, marinas, charter fishing docks, waterfront dining, and water sports rentals. This is the operational heart of the Orange Beach fishing and boating economy.

Festivals and Events

National Shrimp Festival — Gulf Shores Held annually in October on the Gulf Shores public beach. One of the largest outdoor festivals in the Southeast — arts and crafts vendors, live music, and Gulf shrimp prepared in every conceivable way. Attendance routinely exceeds 250,000 over four days. Free admission.

Hangout Music Festival — Gulf Shores A major three-day music festival held on the Gulf Shores beach in May, featuring national headliners across multiple stages. One of the country’s better-known beach music festivals. hangoutmusicfest.com

Frank Brown International Songwriters’ Festival — Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Held each November, this two-week festival features professional songwriters performing their original material at venues throughout Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Lower-key than Hangout but beloved by music fans who prefer the songwriter-in-the-round format. frankbrownsongwritersfestival.com

Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival One of the oldest and most respected juried arts festivals in the Southeast, held each March in downtown Fairhope. Artists from across the country; strong attendance; a signature event on the Eastern Shore calendar.

Foley Harvest Festival Annual fall festival in downtown Foley celebrating the agricultural heritage of south Baldwin County. Arts, crafts, live music, and food vendors.

OWA Spring Jam and other OWA events The OWA entertainment district in Foley hosts a rotating calendar of concerts, car shows, and seasonal events throughout the year. Check their current calendar at visitowa.com.

Things to Do at the Beach

The Alabama Gulf Coast has 32 miles of white sand beach across Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The sand is notably white and fine — a product of quartz washed down from the Appalachians — and the Gulf water is warm from late spring through early fall.

Gulf Shores Public Beach The main public beach access point in Gulf Shores, located at the foot of Highway 59. Free public beach with parking, restrooms, and beach chair and umbrella rentals nearby. The busiest stretch of beach during summer and festival season.

Gulf State Park Beach Two miles of managed beach within Gulf State Park. Typically less crowded than the public beach, with better-organized access and the park’s amenities nearby. A parking fee or park pass is required.

Water Sports Kayaking, paddleboarding, parasailing, jet skiing, dolphin cruises, and snorkeling tours are all available for rent or charter from multiple operators along the Orange Beach and Gulf Shores waterfront. Orange Beach Watersports and similar operators along Canal Road and the Perdido Pass area are the center of the water sports rental economy.

Fishing Piers The Gulf State Park Pier extends 825 feet into the Gulf and is one of the longest public fishing piers on the Gulf Coast. No fishing license required to fish from the pier. The Perdido Pass Bridge area is also a popular bank fishing and wade fishing spot.

Perdido Pass The pass connecting the Gulf to the back-bay system at the eastern end of Orange Beach. Strong currents, excellent fishing, and a scenic spot to watch charter boats head out in the morning. Flora-Bama Lounge is nearby on the Alabama/Florida state line.

Golf

Baldwin County has one of the strongest golf lineups in Alabama, with courses ranging from public daily-fee tracks to destination resort layouts.

Kiva Dunes Golf Club — Gulf Shores A top-ranked Alabama course on the Fort Morgan Peninsula, with a layout routed through coastal dunes, freshwater lakes, and native vegetation along the Gulf. Consistently rated among the best courses in the state. kivadunes.com

Peninsula Golf & Racquet Club — Gulf Shores A semi-private 36-hole facility in Gulf Shores with two distinct 18-hole courses through natural wetlands and pine forests. One of the most-played golf destinations on the Alabama coast. peninsulagolf.com

Craft Farms Golf Resort — Gulf Shores A resort golf complex with two 18-hole courses designed by Arnold Palmer — Cotton Creek and Woodlands. Located off Highway 59 in Gulf Shores with resort accommodations. craftfarms.com

Rock Creek Golf Club — Fairhope A well-regarded 18-hole course in Fairhope with a layout through wooded terrain and elevation changes rare for coastal Alabama. Popular with Eastern Shore residents and visitors. rockcreekgolf.com

Timber Creek Golf Club — Daphne A 27-hole public course in Daphne, one of the most-played facilities on the Eastern Shore. Multiple tee options and a layout suited to a range of skill levels. timbercreekgolf.net

Lakewood Golf Club at The Grand Hotel — Point Clear The historic Grand Hotel in Point Clear features two 18-hole courses on Mobile Bay. Azalea and Dogwood courses offer bay views and a classic resort golf experience. marriott.com/hotels/golf/mobgr-the-grand-hotel-marriott-resort

Fishing

Baldwin County is one of the premier fishing destinations in the Gulf South, with saltwater and freshwater options across the county.

Saltwater Fishing

Gulf of Mexico — Offshore and Near-Shore Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are home to one of the largest charter fishing fleets on the Gulf Coast. Near-shore fishing (within 10 miles) produces Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, cobia, amberjack, and redfish. Offshore trips (30–100+ miles) target red snapper, grouper, tuna, wahoo, and mahi-mahi. Red snapper season is closely regulated — confirm current federal season dates before booking. The Orange Beach Fishing Association (obfa.net) is a good resource for local charter operators.

Perdido Pass and Back Bays The tidal passes and back-bay system connecting the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway and bay estuary are productive year-round for redfish, speckled trout, flounder, and sheepshead. Kayak fishing and wade fishing are popular in the shallower back-bay areas. Perdido Pass itself concentrates fish during tidal movement.

Mobile Bay (Eastern Shore) The eastern shore of Mobile Bay — Fairhope, Daphne, Spanish Fort — offers excellent bay fishing for redfish, speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, flounder, and cobia during their seasonal runs. The Jubilee phenomenon, unique to the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, occasionally brings flounder, shrimp, and crabs to the shoreline in the early morning hours during summer months.

Surf Fishing The Gulf beaches offer accessible surf fishing for whiting, pompano, redfish, and bluefish. The Gulf State Park Pier is the most structured access point; beach fishing is also productive along less-crowded stretches of the Fort Morgan Peninsula.

Freshwater Fishing

Fish River A tidal river flowing into Mobile Bay near Loxley. Excellent for largemouth bass, bream, catfish, and redfish in the tidal lower sections. Canoe and kayak access from multiple points. One of the most popular freshwater/tidal fishing destinations in Baldwin County.

Magnolia River A spring-fed river in the Foley/Magnolia Springs area, known for clear water and excellent bass and bream fishing. Paddling the Magnolia River is a popular activity in its own right.

Perdido River The Perdido River forms the Alabama-Florida state line through the western portion of Baldwin County. Largemouth bass, bream, catfish, and striped bass in the upper sections. Canoe and kayak access available.

Lake Forest and other inland lakes Baldwin County has numerous inland lakes and ponds associated with residential developments and public recreation areas. Check with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for current stocking reports and access points. outdooralabama.com

Arts and Culture

Baldwin County’s arts and culture scene is more substantial than the beach resort reputation suggests. The anchor is Fairhope, which has developed one of the most active arts communities in Alabama over the past several decades — partly by design and partly because the character of the town attracted creative people who stayed.

Visual Arts

Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope is the institutional home of the visual arts on the Eastern Shore — a nonprofit art center with gallery exhibitions, classes, workshops, and a permanent collection. The programming draws from local and regional artists and serves both residents and the broader arts community. esartcenter.org

The galleries in downtown Fairhope represent a range of media and price points — from working studios where local painters sell original work to fine craft galleries with regional jewelry, ceramics, and glass. The concentration of galleries along Fairhope Avenue and the surrounding blocks makes the downtown walkable as an art tour on its own.

Fairhope’s reputation as an artists’ community has roots in the town’s founding history. Fairhope was established in 1894 as a Single Tax Colony — a utopian experiment in land reform — and the idealistic, unconventional character of the founding attracted artists, writers, and free thinkers who built a creative culture that persisted long after the utopian economics faded. That lineage is still visible in the town’s character and in the arts community that exists today.

Live Music

The Wharf Amphitheater in Orange Beach is the largest music venue on the Alabama coast — a 10,000-seat outdoor facility that hosts national touring acts from spring through fall. Country, rock, and pop artists who headline arenas in other markets play here because the setting — waterfront, outdoor, summer evenings on the Intracoastal — is genuinely appealing.

The smaller music circuit runs through venues in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach throughout the year. The Frank Brown International Songwriters’ Festival in November is the cultural anchor of the Baldwin County music calendar — two weeks of professional songwriters performing their original material in rooms that hold a few dozen to a few hundred people. The format (songwriter-in-the-round, original songs, the writers explaining what the songs are about) is beloved by people who follow it and completely unknown to people who don’t. It’s worth knowing about before you move here.

Theater

The Red Barn Theatre in Gulf Shores is the community theater organization serving the Gulf Coast — a long-running community theater that produces musicals and plays throughout the year with local talent. The Gulf Coast arts community relies on organizations like the Red Barn to provide performing arts programming between the touring acts at The Wharf.

Nature Education and Family Culture

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores is a small but well-regarded zoo focused on Gulf Coast and tropical species. A consistent activity for residents with children and a genuine attraction in its own right — the zoo has expanded significantly over the past decade and continues to develop. alabamagulfcoastzoo.com

The Estuarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab is technically in Mobile County but functions as a day trip from anywhere on the Gulf Coast. The Estuarium is a public aquarium and education center focused on Mobile Bay and Gulf Coast marine ecosystems — one of the best places on the coast to understand what’s actually in the water you’re fishing and swimming in. disl.edu/estuarium

Literary and Creative Culture

Fairhope has a literary identity that dates to the same utopian origins as its visual arts community. The town has attracted writers for more than a century, and that tradition continues. The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts and the independent bookstores in downtown Fairhope serve a reading and writing community that is active relative to the town’s size.

The combination of a walkable downtown, a bay view, a functioning arts community, and proximity to the Gulf has made Fairhope a consistent draw for writers, artists, and creative professionals considering a relocation. The Eastern Shore is not a retirement destination pretending to have arts and culture — it has arts and culture that developed organically from the character of the place.

Hours, admission fees, festival dates, fishing seasons, and regulations change. Verify current information directly with the applicable venue, park, or regulatory agency before visiting. Fishing regulations are enforced by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Milton Christ, REALTOR® | naf Cash Certified | Keller Williams Alabama Gulf Coast | AL License #172097