My friend Jen is one of the most fun people I know and when she asked us to go on an overnighter in Birmingham, we were all in. We booked a gorgeous room with two queen beds at the Bohemian in Mountain Brook (we slept in one, kids in the other) and soaked up all that Birmingham had to offer. Jen spent hours researching the perfect places to go (which is usually what I do for a trip so it’s so fun to just show up and know the trip will be good). Enneagram 3s. Haha!

Where to stay:

Such a great location, right across from the Botanical Gardens and Zoo. The Botanical Gardens are FREE and connect to the zoo via a round about. The zoo is currently open Wednesday through Saturday.

Beautiful pool and gorgeous rooms. The whole area of Mountain Brook is adorable and quaint with upscale stores, restaurants, an amazing Greenwise Publix. They also have a nice restaurant and bar but we ended up ordering pizza from Post Office Pies to the hotel 10/10 recommend.

Where to eat:

I care about two things when I travel: where to eat + where to shop with a sprinkle of what to not miss tourist attractions. So keep that in mind! ha!

Homewood Restaurants: Farm Bowl + Juice Co. (vegan - think oat bowls and smoothie bowls), Real + Rosemary (we didn’t make it here but it looked so cute - lunch and dinner), and Big Bad Breakfast (omg yum!) are all on the same strip in Homewood. You can grab a coffee at O’Henrys.
Pepper Place restaurants: Pepper Place is a superrr cute area but almost everything was closed Sunday and Monday. We did go to Jeni’s but heard great things about Bettola (we were told any Frank Stitt restaurant was a must) and Red Cat and the cute market there.

Where to shop:

The Summit is an outdoor shopping area that has all the greats like Anthro, West Elm, Urban Outfitters, etc. They also have a Shake Shack which we wished we had gone to vs a restaurant we didn’t love haha. Across the street from there is a Trader Joe’s (we stocked up on hotel snacks) and more high end shopping like Kate Spade and Kendra Scott, etc.
Pepper Place had loads of cute shops (think Billy Reid and other independent labels) so you could get ice cream from Jeni’s and walk around or a coffee from Red Cat.
In Homewood (near restaurants above) we loved the cutest book store Little Professor and the 71 year old toy store Homewood Toy + Hobby.

What to see:

Birmingham Botanical Gardens - side note they have one of the most beautiful gift shops I have ever seen. I wanted every perfect pot and plant they had!
Birmingham Zoo