Hikers and bikers come to Abita to explore the Tammany Trace, a 31-mile-long paved path that runs from Covington to Slidell. Built on a former railroad track, it's the only rails-to-trails project in Louisiana.

The Trace runs past the new Abita Tourism Plaza, completed this spring at the trailhead. The new Abita Springs Trailhead Museum opened there in April.

The Opry, which has been performing Louisiana roots music for years, does six concerts a year in the Abita Town Hall -- three times in spring, three in the fall. Get to the Town Hall early on concert nights and you can listen to old-time musicians jamming on the porch. Louisiana roots music is played with guitars, mandolins, fiddles, dobros and other instruments, and none use electric amplifiers.

Also part of the Tourism Plaza is the original pavilion that once stood over the springs of Abita. In the 1880s, the heyday of Abita, thousands came to ''take the waters'' and stay in the town's hotels. The springs long since have been capped and none of the hotels has survived. The imposing two-story pavilion, however, remained and was moved to the new plaza earlier this year.