I’m sure many of you have researched bourbon trails, winery tours or maybe the best routes to follow during the autumn and winter seasons. I would like invite you on a trip down hamburger highway with me. We will look at some of the hottest hamburger havens in the Atlanta area.

Before we get started, let me say that the sumptuous offerings we are about to take a look at are not your father’s hamburgers and certainly not the burger experience that you grew up on. No fast food here, no mystery meat and certainly nothing that has been left to “mature” under a heat lamp.... Read More

In an earlier blog, Heidemarie Chernushin wrote about her four-day jaunt through Atlanta visiting some of the destination's most notable attractions. These were places I would have loved to have visited also, but my trip to Georgia's largest city was in the company of two teenage boys who had a bit of a different itinerary in mind ... and it centered on tomahawks, cliff hangers and flying like Superman. Extreme family vacation? Not really. Just a couple of fun days at Atlanta parks that feature roller coasters, water slides and 95 mile per hour fastballs. ... Read More

There’s a reason it’s called HOTlanta! I was standing (yes, standing) at a bus stop and sweat began dripping from my forehead. But, in spite of the heat and humidity, I enjoyed my visit to Atlanta.
 
I was attending a four-day conference and arranged to arrive early on the first day and leave late on the last day so I could squeeze in some time poking around town. Thinking about playing tourist, the best option was to use a Georgia CityPass. The CityPass includes entry to the Georgia Aquarium; the World of Coca Cola; the Inside CNN Studio Tour; High Museum of Art or Fernbank Museum of Natural History; Zoo Atlanta or the Atlanta History Center. (By purchasing a CityPass for your visit, you'll save nearly half the cost of admission to these popular attractions.)

My hotel, the Omni at CNN Center, was conveniently located saving me some travel time between attractions too. ... Read More

Whether you live in the Atlanta area or you’re just visiting, a trek to Stone Mountain is one of the things you wind up doing. It’s not a Georgia law or anything; you just do it. I allotted most of a day to explore Stone Mountain Park, although with all the activities this place offers you could easily spend a week. But I already knew what I was going to do: hike to the top of the mountain.... Read More

I’d heard great things about Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium. I recently visited the new, improved California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and was extremely impressed by that facility’s Steinhart Aquarium. I also can be totally captivated by a handful of neon tetras and zebra danios darting around a 20-gallon fish tank decorated with plastic plants and a castle perched on top of a rock, so there’s something particularly mesmerizing about viewing huge-by-comparison ocean dwellers in a reasonable approximation of their natural environment from mere feet away.

All I really need to tell you about this... Read More

     Ethel Mertz would have loved Mary Mac’s. Lucy Ricardo’s best friend wasn’t a gourmet, but she was a dedicated eater. She approached food with gusto, with relish, with enthusiasm. And that’s the way you should approach this shrine to Southern cookery, because the experience is akin to being invited to dinner in a gracious old home and waiting expectantly until the hostess—who also happens to be a consummate cook, worthy of being included in Paula Deen’s league—appears in the doorway to the dining room and announces with a... Read More

 
     Atlanta's Fox Theatre—or more to the point, The Fabulous Fox Theatre—is one of the grand dames of what used to be called the “movie palace.” It’s an opulent throwback to the days when an old-fashioned movie premiere was a real event—unlike today, when “Friday the 13th Part XVII: Jason Lives Yet Again” opens on 3,500 multiplex screens and goes to DVD three months later. I’m talking undisputed classics. “Citizen Kane.” “Lawrence of Arabia.” “Gone With the Wind.” 

The Fox... Read More

     If you have Georgia on your mind—as songwriter Hoagy Carmichael wrote—you aren't alone. The state is a popular driving destination, with its contrast of modern cities and smaller quaint towns. Atlanta, in fact, is affectionately called the "little big apple," a reference to its size and statue as the premier city of the South. Georgia offers visitors back-to-nature attractions, beaches, golf courses and historic sites ranging from American Indian burial mounds to Civil War battlegrounds to civil rights monuments.

The AAA 'Georgia Peach' Drive trip details a... Read More

 
     I’m not a huge fan of walking around cemeteries; I figure that if I’m eventually going to end up planted in one anyway, why tempt fate by showing up early? But I spent an unusually rainy week in Atlanta that ended up scrambling my sightseeing plans. Riding Marta one afternoon en route to Midtown, I idly listened to the cheerful recorded voice announcing the points of interest in the vicinity of the next stop, and the Historic Oakland Cemetery was one of them. I made a mental note to add it to my itinerary.

I ended up visiting on a Saturday... Read More

“WHAT’LL YA HAVE?” That’s the first thing you hear when you walk into The Varsity. Actually, you’ll hear a chorus of “what’ll ya haves” from a long lineup of counter men and women, or perhaps a brusque “Next in line!” or a shouted request to move “all the way down!” And guess what? When your cashier barks “What’ll ya have?” four times in a row, ya better be ready with an answer.

When they found out I was going to Atlanta on a travel writing assignment, several coworkers told me I had to make the pilgrimage to The... Read More