Why You Should Still Go the Gulf Coast

A week after my research trip to Florida's Gulf Coast -- driving between Pensacola and Panama City -- oil has finally splashed on the same beaches. But I still think visitors should go the region, as I explained in this blog entry for the Huffington Post.

Most Expensive Airport: Huntsville?

Photo by freethehops, via Flickr

This week we learned that Huntsville, Alabama is the nation's most expensive airport (average fares reached $471 in the last quarter). Or is it?

Barbie Peek, a Crimson Tide grad and a director at the Huntsville International Airport, says that number is a bit misleading. She told me "68 percent" of the 1.2 million annual flights landing there are "on business" and paying "higher business fares." And the report, taking in the nation's top 100 airports (Huntsville actually ranks 111th in passenger traffic, alas), excluded the most expensive ones ("no Alaska or Hawaii airports").

What's more, according to my own research, it's not really true. Looking at roundtrip economy-class fares of select routes leaving January 29, Huntsville was actually the cheapest:

• Newark, New Jersey --> Huntsville ($301)
• Seattle --> Tucson ($309)
• Tulsa, Oklahoma --> Casper, Wyoming ($331)
• Anchorage --> Nome, Alaska ($442)
• Grand Forks, North Dakota --> Chicago ($492)
• Los Angeles --> Hilo, Hawaii ($644)
  

If you go to Huntsville (called "H-Vegas" locally), there are a few things to watch for.

• SCIENCE NON-FICTION. Huntsville is home to the greatest three-day $449 program of all time: adult Space Camp (as featured in the underrated Will Ferrell movie Stranger than Fiction). It's connected with the city's top attraction, the Rocket & Science Center Museum, which shows how Huntsville helped put a man on the moon by attracting German rocket-building scientists in the '50s. The museum also explains how astronauts use the toilet.
  

• HISTORIC DISTRICTS. Elsewhere in town are several historic districts, including the antebellum mansions of Twickenham.

• MOUNTAINS. This part of Alabama, near the Georgia/Tennessee tri-state border, isn't a flat delta. Just east of town, the 2100-acre Monte Sano State Park is home to a 1600-foot mountain with trails going up for views.

• FOOD. The "fine dining" scene of Huntsville has grown in recent years. For a "local yokel kinda place," Peek recommended the BBQ at Greenbrier (around since 1957).