Planning to head to either the Muscle Shoals or Grand National locations on the RTJ trail for a weekend. My wife (non-golfer) and toddler son (not quite a golfer yet ) coming with me.

Marriott at both locations, but wanted to see what activities are available besides golf? Meaning which location would be better for my wife and young son to have some things to do while I play golf, probably in the early morning? This would be a short trip from Atlanta, probably a 3 day, 2 night jaunt.

Does either location have better dining options? My guess is Grand National is probably better for dining away from the hotel as there should be some restaurants in the area that cater to Auburn faculty. Not interested in pub grub / college bar food, no thanks.

Input from those who have stayed at either location would be most helpful.

Grand National. I went to school at Auburn so I may be a little biased. This time of year you can tour around campus pretty easily if you are interested in that type of thing.

Haven't been to Grand National, but there sure as hell isn't much to do around Muscle Shoals.

Second this one because I'm an Auburn grad! I wouldn't say there's a ton of restaurants that cater to faculty or anything like that, but there's plenty more than when I was there. Touring campus is a must if you're there.

Grand National is about 5 miles away from the Auburn University campus. Tiger town for shopping is about 3 miles from Grand National. There are many good places to eat in the area and the golf at the RTJ is really nice. I've not made it to Muscle Shoals to the fighting joe, but I know it is in a smaller, more remote area of the state.

Grand National is about 5 miles away from the Auburn University campus. Tiger town for shopping is about 3 miles from Grand National. There are many good places to eat in the area and the golf at the RTJ is really nice. I've not made it to Muscle Shoals to the fighting joe, but I know it is in a smaller, more remote area of the state.

I think Grand National is without a doubt the right pick out of the two, given your situation. Muscle Shoals is great and has the best courses on the trail in my opinion (I've played them all except for Mobile). However, Muscle Shoals is way out in the middle of nowhere. Grand National's courses are absolutely great too, plus there's a whole lot more to do in Auburn/Opelika for non-golfers. Plus, it's a heck of a lot closer if you are driving from Atlanta.

For another option, have you thought about the Prattville courses? The Judge is a really unique and fun course. The other two courses at Prattville are pretty good as well, but it's fair to say they're a step down in comparison to the others we're discussing. Prattville is only about 10 minutes north of Montgomery. I think Montgomery is fun but, honestly, I did these trips down there when myself and my friends were all in still in college. We only went out in Montgomery one time and that memory is a bit "fuzzy" for me. I do remember the drive back to Illinois the next day was not a lot of fun...