Start from 28 curated places around Columbus, MS, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Harveys
The anchor of downtown Columbus dining, on Main Street in a brick building with exposed walls and warm lighting — it is the kind of place that works for a weekday lunch and a Saturday-night date. The 48-hour marinated ribeyes are what most regulars order, but the Sunday brunch pulls its own crowd for the filet-and-crawfish-cream combination. Reservations recommended for dinner on weekends.
Old Hickory Steak House
A no-frills chophouse that has been in business for over five decades — the charcoal grill sits right at the entrance so you smell it before you're through the door. You pick your cut, you pick your size, it comes with salad, baked potato, and garlic bread. USDA Choice sirloins, ribeyes, New York strips, T-bones, and filets, all cooked over real charcoal. The crowd is local, the prices are honest, and there is no cocktail menu to distract you.
Trails & outdoors
Columbus Riverwalk Path
A 4.2-mile paved trail along the Tombigbee Waterway starting at Main Street in historic downtown and running through hardwood forests and open fields with river views throughout. Flat, well-lit, and wide enough for walkers and cyclists together. Benches, restrooms, and covered shelters along the route make it easy to go as far as you want and turn around. The stretch near the historic 1927 bridge is the most photographed section.
Lake Lowndes Loop Trail
A 4.5-mile moderate loop through the wooded hills of Lake Lowndes State Park, eight miles southeast of downtown Columbus. The trail wraps around the 150-acre lake with consistent views of the water and enough rolling terrain to feel like actual exercise. Wildlife sightings — particularly birds and deer — are common. The park also has disc golf, fishing, and a beach, making it easy to build a half day around this trail.
Things to do
Princess Theater
The 1924 art-deco theater on 5th Street South has been restored to 750-seat capacity and is the most active performance venue in Columbus — concerts, plays, film screenings, open mic nights, and late-night DJ events all rotate through the same ornate room. The interior details (pressed tin ceiling, original moldings) are worth seeing even if nothing on the bill appeals.
Magnolia Motor Speedway
A .375-mile dirt oval on Highway 45 South that hosts some of the most competitive dirt-track racing in the mid-South, including the annual Magnolia State 100 for super late models. The track is referred to as 'The South's Premier Dirt Track' with enough frequency that it's either marketing or actually true — the production quality of the events and the caliber of drivers who show up lean toward the latter.
Landmarks & sights
Friendship Cemetery
Founded in 1849, this 70-acre cemetery is where the tradition that became Memorial Day was born — on April 25, 1866, the ladies of Columbus decorated the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers side by side, the first such gesture of reconciliation recorded in the country. The Library of Congress credits it as the site of the first Decoration Day. Spanish moss, old magnolias, and 22,000 graves make for a genuinely moving walk even without the history.
Tennessee Williams Home & Welcome Center
The Victorian house at 300 Main Street where Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 now doubles as the city's welcome center, so you can pick up a walking map while standing in the playwright's childhood parlor. The free tour covers period furnishings, exhibits on Williams's early Mississippi years, and the local life that would surface decades later in 'The Glass Menagerie' and 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.' Staff here are unusually knowledgeable about both the literary and architectural history of Columbus.