Arab, AL Road Trips

Arab City Park is beautiful and well maintained city park that includes the Arab historic park, which features several restored buildings dating from the late 1800s to the 1940s and exhibits depicting daily life in this part of the country during those times. Thompson Falls is a beautiful and often impressive waterfall that lies on private property (visitors welcome and expected, but be respectful!) a few miles outside of town. If you're heading south on Main St, you can get there by turning left past the Meat Market onto Fry Gap Rd. Follow this road for a mile and make a slight left onto Brashie r's Chapel Rd. After 2.5 miles, turn right onto Thompson Falls Rd and after another 3/4ths of a mile, take a left onto Thompson Falls Dr. Past the second house on the left, you will see a gravel drive leading off into the woods. This is the route down to the falls. It is recommended to park on the side of the road and walk down.

Poke Salat Festival (downtown Arab). third Saturday of every May. The name refers to the folk term for a salad made from pokeweed, a toxic plant that requires special preparation to make it safe for consumption. (updated Oct 2020)

Most regional and national fast food chains have a presence in Arab along highway 231. Huddle House is the only one open overnight. Local favorites include Midas Burger, known for their delicious chicken sauce, Milner's Dairy Delight, and L Rancho Cafe on Main St, the home of poke salat. Tasty and decently priced Mexican food can be found at Los Arcos as well as Sierra's. The only option for Chinese is Panda III, which is in the same line of shops as Sierra's and will probably compare unfavorably with the Chinese food you get in your hometown.

Arab used to prohibit the sale of alcohol, so drinking options are still fairly limited. CJ's Saloon on Highway 69 has pool and attracts mostly an older crowd. Last call in Alabama is at 2am. No alcohol is sold in Arab on Sundays, anywhere. Beer and wine can be bought at regular retail stores, but liquor is only available at state-owned "ABC" stores.

Quality Inn is behind the McDonald's off of 231 and has rooms for around $60 a night. The Arabian Motel, on Main St, and Green Park Motel, south of town on 231, are cheaper and have mostly long-term residents and an unfavorable local reputation.

The best way to get in is to fly into the nearby airport in Huntsville and drive to Arab. The main highways in and around Arab are US-231, which runs north-south from Huntsville to Blountsville and Oneonta and has most of Arab's chain stores and fast food restaurants; and AL-69, which runs east-west from Guntersville to Cullman through Arab and makes up the northern half of Main St, where most of Arab's locally-owned small businesses are.

There is no public transportation so bring a car! Parking is free and easy to find except during major events like the Poke Salat Festival. Downtown is very small and can be explored easily by foot.