I visited Atlanta from April 16-19. I stayed in midtown at the Hotel Palomar. The Palomar has free wine in the late afternoon and is a 5 minute walk from the MARTA station. The Palomar staff are very nice and helpful - they will go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable. Midtown has easy access to lots of casual restaurants and is a great location to base an Atlanta trip. The MARTA is an excellent way to get around Atlanta, as well as to/from the airport.
Activities:
Piedmont Park - a popular park in midtown. I walked around the lake. It is similar to Austin's hike and bike trail.
Dinner at The Varsity, which is the world's largest drive-in fast food chain. They have a parking garage for their customers. It is an Atlanta icon. Hamburgers are mediocre, but the onion rings and varsity orange drink are good. Servers greet you with "What'll ya have?" and is the restaurant's slogan.
Martin Luther King site - great information in the museums about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. There is a tour of MLK's birth home where you learn about MLK's childhood. Space in the MLK birth home tour are limited, so try to get to the site early in order to get tickets.
Segway Tour - a tour of downtown Atlanta where you get around using segways. The tour starts with a training session to get comfortable with the segways. I got the hang of the segway after 5 minutes of practice. The segway is intuitive and has amazing turn radius. The segways allow us to cover more ground than walking, and is a lot of fun. We felt like celebrities with people watching us and one photo scavenger hunt group even took pictures with the tour guide riding her segway.
Olympic Park - great place to hang out. The park has a large memorial dedicated to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I love the Fountain of Rings water show, where the sprinklers operate in sync with songs (just like the water shows in Chicago's Buckingham fountain and Las Vegas's Bellagio)
Georgia Aquarium - my first visit to an aquarium and it was spectacular. My favorite exhibits were the beluga whales, Ocean Voyager where you feel like you're underneath the ocean, and Tropical Diver which feels like scuba diving in the tropical coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. Purchase your tickets online before arriving so you can skip the ticket line. Try to arrive when the aquarium opens, as it gets more crowded later in the day.
World of Coke - a museum about the history and development of Coca-cola. My favorite parts are the Bottle Works display showing a bottling line where machines fill bottles with Coke (and these bottles are available for visitors to take) tasting room where you can sample Coca-Cola drinks sold all over the world. Many drinks are not sold in the United States. The tasting room is the best part of the World of Coke, in my opinion.
Westin Peachtree Plaza Sundial - near the top of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel with panoramic views of the city and its suberbs. The weather was clear so I was able to see Stone Mountain. I went up there right before sunset so I can see both the daytime and nighttime views of the city.
Federal Reserve Bank - nice presentations about the history of money, the role of the Federal Reserve banks in the nation's monetary system, spotting counterfeit bills, and how money is currently used. I loved the cash processing center where you can see employees sorting, counting, and bundling money. You also get to see robotic forklifts haul carts of money between the vault and cash processing center. As an added bonus, you get to take home a bag of cash - as dollar bills become worn they are shredded and placed in bags for visitors to take. And the entire museum is free.
CNN Studio tour - a way to get a feel for what goes on behind the scenes during news gathering and broadcasting as well as an insight into the various CNN networks. As an added bonus, I got to see 2 live broadcasts - one in the main CNN studio and another in the HLN (Headline News) studio. Try to go during the weekdays, as you will see more workers and have a better chance at seeing a live broadcast.
