Visitors admire the Saturn V rocket on display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. -- Photo by Jeff Greenberg

IT'S BEEN 25 years since I last travelled with a youngster, but I like checking out places families with kids might enjoy. Huntsville, in northeastern Alabama, proved a winner. Huntsville's best known for its space program connections. The Saturn V, which sent American astronauts to the moon, was built there. A model of one dominates the skyline, gleaming white, standing 110 metres tall, as if awaiting the countdown. It's even more striking at night when it's floodlit.

This was once a sleepy agricultural community. But it had a big military base that wasn't being used, and that's where the U.S. government plunked German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and his 117-member team -- they had surrendered to the Americans in 1945.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville's most significant attraction, is loaded with fascinating exhibits. I'd take one of the half-hour guided tours first, then backtrack for the things you want to see in detail.

These would probably include the last real Saturn V; a V-2; a full-sized mockup of a space shuttle, whose rockets and engines were also developed in Huntsville; a Lunar Rover Vehicle with tires made of piano wire so they'd be light and strong and able to stand extremes of temperature; a Lunar Excursion Module, whose fragile-looking foil covering is really the outermost sheet of 25 to 30 layers of tough Mylar; and a moon rock from the Apollo 12 mission.

There's a stomach-churning ride called Space Shot in which you experience 4 Gs of force during a simulated liftoff. Anyone game for more can spin inside a centrifuge or take a simulated space walk. Best done before lunch.

Ask about the Space Academy and the Aviation Challenge, with multi-day camps and programs for children and adults.

Huntsville's other attractions include:

- Earlyworks Children's Museum, the South's largest hands-on history museum. Look for the five-metre-tall talking tree, a room where kids can play giant musical instruments, and a replica of a keelboat that tells of life on the nearby Tennessee River.

- Huntsville Botanical Garden, the Southeast Tourism Society's travel attraction of 2003, with free audio and sensory tours for the blind and deaf and a free shuttle for those with mobility problems.

- Sci-Quest, a hands-on science centre. Cranking a wheel at one exhibit pumps soda pop into an animated character's plastic stomach -- to see how big a burp you can create. Fun!

- Wheeden House Museum, with wonderful sketches by Maria Howard Wheeden, a 19-century poet and portrait artist. Souvenir copies of her watercolour prints are only $1.

- Harrison Brothers Hardware, established in 1879. It's jammed to the rafters with nostalgic hardware gifts and local crafts.

Tourist Trolley Loop runs hourly and will also make hotel pickups by reservation. Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., there's a free downtown shuttle to 12 places offering food and entertainment. Huntsville is just south of the Tennessee border. I-65 is a few kilometres west; 1-75 is closest major point is Chattanooga, 175 km east.

Call 800-772-2348 or visit huntsville. org.