Things to Do in Daphne

Run by the adventurers at Wild Native, City Safaris' urban expeditions invite participants to discover the unlikely thrills hidden within some of Mobile's stateliest settings. Whether they're recreating the festive fun of Mardi Gras, exploring downtown's historical haunts, or snooping through the inside of the U.S.S. Alabama and the surrounding grounds at Battleship Park, participants compete with one another while flexing their problem-solving muscles. Since friendly competition often brings out a participant's true nature, Wild Native's adventurers also schedule singles hunts that pair up prospective dates for an evening of strategizing.

Just off the white-sand coastline of northwest Florida, Lanier Sailing Academy teaches students to captain their own aquatic adventures with classes in cruising, chartering, and navigation. Classes include programs for beginners to advanced students, starting with the Practical Sailing for Basic Keelboat Certification course, in which novice navigators learn to steer boats, trim sails, and avoid swashbuckling sea otters. While working toward certification in various programs, students explore the Intracoastal Waterway and its bounty of dolphins, rays, blue pelicans, and myriad fish. Lanier Sailing Academy’s experienced members earn membership into the Buccaneer Sailing Club and are able to rent and sail 22- to 25-foot boats at their leisure.

Winding through dense, verdant forests, the peaceful waters of the Perdido River form an aquatic highway for Perdido Natural Adventures' fleet of canoes, kayaks, and tubes. The company's rental watercrafts facilitate journeys into the natural habits and underground gambling rings of bald eagles, wild turkeys, beaver, and deer. As vessels float along the bass-filled river, white sand beaches beckon adventurers to swim and play in the water. Perdido Natural Adventures' shuttle facilitates each expedition, carrying rentals or customers' own vessels from Fran's Country Grill to various launch points along the river. The staff can also arrange overnight camping trips with the centaurs that manage the forest.

Emerald Coast Tours' knowledgeable guides champion the bicycle as Pensacola's ideal mode of transport. They strive to serve as ambassadors to city visitors, customizing sightseeing biking tours to suit cyclists' interests and happily recommending travel destinations to patrons seeking daylong rentals. Their shop's single-speed Sun Revolutions cruisers prove ideal for coasting down city streets and laying siege to sand castles along the coastline.

Under the banner of the Greek word pneuma, which means "breath of God," the instructors at Pneuma Yoga/Movement Studio put a Christian spin on the ancient Hindu practice. Through muslin drapes, gauzy sunlight diffuses throughout the homey studio, alighting on beginners as they meditate through gentle flow yoga's relaxed poses and breath work or advanced practitioners as they scrimmage with their limitations in power yoga's muscle-building exercises. Guests can pop in during their lunch hour for Lunch Bunch sessions, and younger patrons aged 12–18 acquaint themselves with the benefits of the limb-limbering art during Prakasha yoga. Instructors keep class sizes intimate, giving each aspiring yogi enough room to move through mountain poses, sun salutations, and lindy-hop routines.

More than four decades ago, Bikram Choudhury founded schools in India devoted to his brand of yoga, and then began branching out across the world. His technique incorporates a series of 26 postures tied together in a heated environment to aid flexibility and boost the body’s toxin-fighting prowess. Today, Bikram Hot Yoga Mobile's certified instructors continue Choudhury’s tradition, welcoming people of all experience levels into a studio whose vibes are as warm as its temperatures.