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33 Georgia & Alabama Backroads

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Though the mixed tape is a lost art, its spirit lives on with our Georgia and Alabama playlist – like the South, it reflects a multicultural potpourri of musical styles and genres, from Athens alt-rock pioneers REM to Alabama’s own iconic country boy, Hank Williams.

• “Love Shack,”B-52s

• “Yeah!,” Usher featuring Lil’ Jon & Ludacris

• “Georgia on My Mind,” Ray Charles

• “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd

• “The One I Love,” REM

• “Closer to Fine,” Indigo Girls

• “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” Hank Williams

• “Ramblin’ Man,” The Allman Brothers

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GEORGIA & ALABAMA TRIPS

33 Georgia & Alabama Backroads

27 Atlanta for Food Lovers

29 Hogs & Heifers: A Georgia BBQ Odyssey

32 Savannah’s Seafood & Soul Food

30 Brunswick & the Golden Isles

36 Talladega & Cheaha National Forests

37 The Shoals: Along the Tennessee River

28 Athens Rocks

35 Thanks Hank: Hank Williams’ Alabama

38 Old Mobile, Alabama

26 48 Hours in Atlanta

31 Midnight in the Garden: Eccentric Savannah

34 Coon Dogs & Unclaimed Baggage: Only In Alabama

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Return to beginning of chapter

TRIP 26

48 Hours in Atlanta

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WHY GO Burnt lifeless in the Civil War, Atlanta emerged from the flames a cosmopolitan juggernaut full of delectable restaurants, bohemian neighborhoods, trendy bars and world-class cultural attractions. Here’s how to play, eat and drink like the locals (and sleep like a tourist) over a weekend in the sass of the South.

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There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who love Atlanta, and those who have only caught a fleeting glimpse on the way to Florida. If you are of the latter ilk, exit I-75/85 immediately on Williams St and start at the thriving epicenter of this booming metropolis of nearly six million, Centennial Olympic Park. Built for the 1996 Olympic Games, this urban monument, the scene of the bombing that scarred an otherwise wonderful Olympics, is now home to two of Atlanta’s most entertaining attractions, the nothing-short-of-awesome Georgia Aquarium (the world’s largest by gallon count) and the World of Coca-Cola, where you can drink yourself silly on 60 sodas from around the world.

From the downtown epicenter, continue your tour just east across the Peters St Bridge, where trendy boutiques are popping up faster than Melrose, in Atlanta’s latest gentrified historic district, Castleberry Hill. The No Mas! Cantina anchors the neighborhood (for now). Grab a margarita on the good-times outdoor patio here, then pop in the attached home-decor shop and do a little drunk buying. Castleberry Hill is also home to numerous art galleries and has almost single-handedly put Atlanta on the art radar as the latest place for creative talent to see and be seen. Sleeping in this area most certainly means the Glenn, one of Atlanta’s few fashion-forward boutique hotels. The rooftop bar is teeming with Beautiful People who think they are in Miami. It’s right off Centennial Park.

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TIME

2 days

BEST TIME TO GO

Mar – May

START

Atlanta, GA

END

Atlanta, GA

ALSO GOOD FOR

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After lunch, move north to Midtown, the inner-city area that kicked off the city’s urban renewal in the first place. One of Atlanta’s unique attractions is the Center for Puppetry Arts. If you are towing offspring, stop here. You can browse exhibits that jar your childhood memories – Jim Henson, for instance – while your kids run around digging all the elaborate puppets. If you are towing a significant other, Atlanta’s world-class High Museum of Art is the first museum in the world to exhibit art lent from Paris’ Louvre. You could spend hours in this whitewashed multilevel space, taking in eye-catching late-19th-century furniture and countless European and American artists, Monet and Bellini among them. Two favorites: the haunting Bust of a Man (1525; artist unknown) and Vik Muniz’s Khyber Pass, Self-Portrait as an Oriental, made from trash and found objects. The High