Things to Do in Georgia

Founded based on a need for space for former circus animals, Zoo Atlanta has been a mainstay attraction in Atlanta since 1889. Today, it houses more than 1,500 animals and has the largest number of gorillas and orangutans of any zoo in the United States. Additionally, Zoo Atlanta is one of only four in the U.S. that houses giant pandas.

The 40-acre zoo features seven exhibits, including the popular Ford African Rain Forest and the giant pandas exhibit with its two inhabitants, a male and a female, both on loan from China. Children love the petting zoo, where they can interact with sheep, goats and pigs.

A quintessential field trip experience for Atlanta students, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History allows children the opportunity to explore the planet and its people with both hands-on and hands-off exhibits. These explore everything from modern, foreign world cultures to prehistoric earth, and the Fernbank NatureQuest exhibit is by far the most popular. This interactive experience allows children to explore various ecosystems around the world, while the A Walk Through Time in Georgia exhibit walks through the state's natural history in the context of the development of the planet.

In addition to exhibits, Fernbank also has an impressive IMAX theater with a five-story-high, 72-foot-wide screen, making it the largest movie screen in Atlanta. While most of the films shown are educational, Fernbank does sometimes host special events and programming in the theater.

The College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta honors the greatest players throughout the history of college football. Their stories and achievements are commemorated here in a one-of-a-kind experience. Visitors can learn about exceptional players and the records they broke by exploring the exhibitions in the Hall of Fame. Permanent, etched-glass representations of each Hall of Fame player are on display. There are also 10 augmented reality displays where visitors can view images and video of players and coaches from their favorite school.

More than 750 helmets representing each college football team are on display, as well as larger than life images from 11 conference champions that are updated each season. Visitors can also see historical game-worn uniforms. Other exhibitions explore the dedication, passion, and sacrifice that goes into being a college football player.

An ambitious “rails-to-trails” project, the Atlanta Beltline transforms the city’s trash-collecting tracks into more than 22 miles of footpaths for bikers, runners and pedestrians. The Beltline, a work in progress, merges the city's parks and green spaces, connects neighborhoods to each other and makes public transit more accessible. The Beltline shows off the very best parts of Atlanta.

The popular Eastside Trail and the Historic Fourth Ward Park are two projects, among many others, that have been completed. A planned streetcar is in the works, an addition that will connect the furthest reaches of the Beltline to more popular, central attractions in Atlanta. Some of the other highlights include 33 miles of multi-use trails, 1,300 acres of parks, more public art and historic preservation efforts.

Named after a governor and made famous by its live oaks, dripping Spanish moss, and Confederate Memorial Statue, Forsyth Park is the green hub of historic downtown Savannah. A 30-acre park, this expansive stretch of greenery is home to outdoors enthusiasts, Victorian-era mansions, and architectural treasures like Hodgson Hall and the Lucy Armstrong Mansion. Enjoyed by all who visit, Forsyth Park is for anyone who wants to see post-card worthy Savannah at its finest.

Made famous by both the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, (and the Clint Eastwood-directed film of the same name), Bonaventure Cemetery, is an iconic cemetery positioned on a bluff overlooking the Wilmington River. With its live oaks, dramatic lawn sculptures, and dripping Spanish moss, the Bonaventure Cemetery has a distinctly eerie yet beautiful air to it, and thus makes for one of the best attractions in all of Savannah. Quintessentially Southern Gothic, a stroll through this cemetery is one of hot summer dreams, and on this stroll you’ll come across graves of ex-military generals, the poet Conrad Aiken, the Academy Award-winning lyricist Johnny Mercer, and Georgia’s first governor.

The 1996 Summer Olympic Games live on at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, a 21-acre site that remains one of the city’s premiere public park spaces. The park's main icon—and one of Georgia’s most photographed landmarks—would be the Fountain of Rings, an interactive play area that uses computer-controlled lights and jets of water to display the Olympic Rings. The fountain water show is synchronized to music, and in the warmest months, kids—and even adults—run through the jets to cool off.

Also noteworthy are the park's stone paths, comprised of inscribed, dedicated bricks that line the walkways. The bricks, bought by Atlanta and Georgia natives, as well as by people all over the world, even helped fund the games in 1996. The city hosts an online brick-locator tool to help people find their own bricks or those of friends and family. The dedicated ones make up a significant portion of the nearly 800,000 bricks used to build the park.

It is hard not to love historic Inman Park. Often called Atlanta’s oldest neighborhood, it was established in 1890 and named after Samuel Inman, a prominent Atlanta businessman in the late 1800s. The picturesque area features several parks with abundant green spaces, wide lawns, stately Victorian-era homes and a plethora of independent boutiques and restaurants. Winding, narrow streets make strolling through the neighborhood an appealing option, and on any given day, residents enjoy tea and lemonade on sweeping front porches flanked by azalea bushes, giving the area a charming, homey feel.

Inman Park is a celebration of historic Atlanta residential architecture from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and in addition to Victorian-style mansions, influences range from Romanesque to Queen Anne. The neighborhood is comprised of two parts–the Inman Park historic district and the Inman Park-Moreland Historic District.

The focal point of the Atlanta skyline is the stately gold dome of the Georgia State Capitol. Lady Freedom, a statue holding a sword and a lantern, stands atop the Capitol building; she has captured the attention of everyone who passes by since 1889. The design of the building draws from the neoclassical style, similar to that of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Inside the building, Victorian and Florentine Renaissance influence is evident in the artistic motifs, while the site has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

The Capitol is the main operating building for Georgia’s state government. It houses the offices of the state governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state, and is also the site where the General Assembly gathers. The fourth floor holds an educational museum and a visitors' center.