The Gulf Coast is home to two great beachside cities – Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Ala., and the word has gotten out! BudgetTravel.com recently received 924 nominations, 96,605 votes and 2,415 comments for its ‘America’s Coolest Small Towns 2013’ contest. That’s the site’s biggest turnout ever!
Gulf Shores is among the top 15 cities, and you have the chance to make it number one, helping bring home this coveted title! All you have to do is vote, so what are you waiting for? Voting closes Feb. 15, and you can vote once a day until then.
Here are a few things we think make Gulf Shores a cool city:
- The beach is composed almost entirely of quartz grain with origins in the Appalachian Mountains. This gives Gulf Shores some of the whitest sand in the world.
- Each year, more than 250,000 visitors flock to Gulf Shores for the Annual National Shrimp Festival held in October.
- The Hangout Music Festival hosts approximately 35,000 visitors at the three-day music festival on the beach in May.
- Between the months of May and October, several types of endangered sea turtles make their way to the beach from the Gulf to lay their eggs. After about 60 days, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings make the perilous journey back to the sea. They return later to lay their own eggs on the same beach where they were hatched.