Sun, food and fun is what Alabama’s Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area is all about, with sugar-white beaches, spectacular seafood, a laid-back atmosphere, and a healthy lineup of local musicians practicing their regionally inspired craft to crowds who are decidedly in tune with the vibe.
Jimmy Buffett’s sister LuLu even owns a bar and grill here—LuLu’s at Homeport Marina—where a visitor and a few hundred or so of his or her closest friends can experience both a “Change in Latitude and a Change in Attitude” while digging their toes into the sand or biting into little sista’s version of the iconic “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”
Although Gulf Shores definitely boasts a spicy local flavor—and is flavored by the “old-timer” locals—its rich, good-times gumbo is being savored by record numbers of travelers and transplants.
“Most people who consider themselves locals have only been here three months—there’s not a lot of old-timers here,” jokes Brent Burns, a “local” Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter who has taken the stage at LuLu’s most every Monday for three years running. “When I came here in ’72 I drove across that big bridge and saw the beach and just fell in love with it. It still has a Southern charm to it. The water is pretty and the people are just as good as the water is.”
Burns (www.brentburns.com), who scored a raucous Top 40 hit in 1979 about the absurdity of oil prices—the more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems—acts as the official musical ambassador of Gulf Shores, and is all too happy to live the endless summer lifestyle he so often sings about.
“It’s just paradise for me,” Burns says. “They’re going to have to drag me out of here.”
The list of Gulf Shores recreational accolades is practically endless as well.
“The beach is the No. 1 selling point,” Burns says. “There’s also beautiful accommodations, great golf, amusement parks, the Intracoastal Waterway…Some of the greatest sport fishing in the world is right here. There’s just a real variety of things to do.”
One thing’s for sure: If you come to Gulf Shores, don’t forget to pack your appetite.
“Everyone wants seafood, and there’s a lot of good restaurants,” Burns observes. “The main fare is the big seafood platter, and a lot of our restaurants have great views of the water.
“There’s also great entertainment,” he continues. “A lot of cities I visit don’t have a lot of live entertainment anymore. There’s lots of work down here for musicians and songwriters. We have a pretty big songwriter community.”
Despite the tourism-dampening affect of Hurricane Katrina—the Alabama Gulf Coast wasn’t hit as hard as its neighbors, however—the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area has enjoyed a dramatic increase in visitor spending, with gross sales registering more than a 33 percent increase between spring 2004 and spring 2007.
“Now we get the summertime family tourists, and after Labor Day, retirees. There’s hardly no slow season down here—maybe a few weeks in December,” Burns says. “It’s still a small town, though. It has luckily retained some of its charm through all of the development.”
When all is said and done, for folks like Burns and the increasing number of those who want to walk a sandy mile in his sandals, life’s a beach.
“They say if you get here and get a little sand in your shoes you’ll never go back,” Burns says. “And that’s what I did.”
