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

     Bone-chilling winds whistled through the scarcely-populated Historic District streets of Savannah, Georgia as members of our group huddled closely together around a hauntingly-pale yet well-informed tour guide while searching for protection and reassurance. We had willingly subjected ourselves to an eerie, full-moon lit evening of street walking throughout what is widely considered to be one of the most haunted cities in North America. Why were we putting ourselves through this tortuous experience? Distant shrieks could be heard as we carefully navigated several city blocks while cautiously searching for elusive yet ever-present spiritual orbs; small spheres of light considered by many to be an energy-generated presence given off by a dead person’s soul.... 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

Guest blogger Haley Mac Donell, 10, shares a recent trip experience:

     If you are looking for a place to go on vacation and have young children that like ghosts and history, Savannah is definitely your destination.  This past Memorial Day weekend my Girl Scout troop and I set off for Savannah to visit the Juliette Gordon Low House, who founded the Girl Scouts, and to see this great historic city.

To try something different, we took Amtrak from Winter Park, Florida to Savannah.  My Mom was able to get a AAA discount on Amtrak.  To me it is... 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