38 Best Sights in Atlanta, Georgia

Occupying 30 acres inside Piedmont Park, the grounds contain acres of display gardens, including a 2-acre interactive children's garden; the Fuqua Conservatory, which has unusual flora from tropical and desert climates; and the award-winning Fuqua Orchid Center. Check out the view from the Canopy Walk, a 600-foot suspension bridge 40 feet above Storza Woods. A variety of special exhibits take place throughout the year.

Life in Atlanta and the rest of the South during and after the Civil War is a major focus of this fascinating museum. Displays are provocative, juxtaposing Gone With the Wind romanticism with the grim reality of Ku Klux Klan racism. Located on 33 acres in the heart of Buckhead, this is one of the Southeast's largest history museums, with a research library and archives that annually serve thousands of patrons. Visit the elegant 1928 Swan House mansion and the plantation house that is part of Smith Family Farm. The Kenan Research Center houses an extensive archival collection. Lunch is served at the Swan Coach House, which also has a gallery and a gift shop. The historic Battle of Atlanta is depicted in Cyclorama: The Big Picture and is included in the admission price—just make a reservation to secure your spot.

This 21-acre swath of green was the central venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The benches at the Fountain of Rings allow you to enjoy the water and music spectacle—four times a day, tunes are timed to coincide with water displays that shoot sprays 15 feet to 30 feet high. The All Children's Playground is designed to be accessible to kids with disabilities. Nearby is the world's largest aquarium and Imagine It! Children's Museum. The park also has a café, restrooms, and a playground, and typically offers ice-skating in winter.

Don't miss seeing Centennial Olympic Park at night, when eight 65-foot-tall lighting towers set off the beauty of the park. They represent the markers that led ancient Greeks to public events.

The largest puppetry organization in the country houses a museum where you can see more than 350 puppets from around the world. The elaborate performances include original works and classics adapted for stage. Kids also love the create-a-puppet workshops. The Jim Henson Museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts houses most of the famed puppeteer's collection and includes rooms that re-create his early days, like his office and workshop.

A Gothic Revival–style building completed in 1922, the church came to be known as the spiritual center of the civil rights movement. Members of the King family, including the slain civil rights leader, preached at the church for three generations. Sitting in the main sanctuary on a quiet day when light is shining through the stained-glass windows can be a powerful experience. The congregation itself now occupies the building across the street.

One of a dwindling number of vintage movie palaces in the nation, the Fox was built in 1929 in a fabulous Moorish-Egyptian style. The interior's crowning glory is its ceiling, complete with moving clouds and twinkling stars above Alhambra-like minarets. Threatened by demolition in the 1970s, the Fox was saved from the wrecking ball by community activists. Today it hosts musicals, rock concerts, dance performances, and film festivals—with an optional rooftop VIP experience at the reservations-only Marquee Club.

Tours should be scheduled in advance.

With more than 10 million gallons of water, this wildly popular attraction is the nation's largest aquarium. The 604,000-square-foot building, an architectural marvel resembling the bow of a ship, has tanks of various sizes filled with more than 100,000 animals, representing 500 species. The aquarium's 6.3-million-gallon Ocean Voyager Gallery is the world's largest indoor marine exhibit, with 4,574 square feet of viewing windows. But not everything has gills: there are also penguins, sea lions, sea otters, river otters, sea turtles, and giant octopuses. The 84,000-square-foot Dolphins in Depth exhibit includes a 25-minute show (reservations required). Hordes of kids—and many adults—can always be found around the touch tanks. Admission includes entry to all public exhibits, shows, and galleries. Forty-five-minute behind-the-scenes tours start at $15. There are often huge crowds, so arrive early or late for the best chance of getting a close-up view of the exhibits.

Try to buy your tickets at least a week ahead. Online ticketing is best, with discounted rates and digital tickets you can print out at home.

The modest Queen Anne–style residence is where Martin Luther King Jr. was born and raised. Besides items that belonged to the family, the house contains an outstanding multimedia exhibit focused on the civil rights movement.

A limited number of visitors are allowed to tour the house each day. Advance reservations are not possible, so sign up early in the day.

This three-level, 43,000-square-foot, hands-on museum offers visitors a multisensory immersion into both the U.S. civil rights movement and global human rights efforts. Each exhibit is a force of its own: the quiet and vicarious look at handwritten journals and personal items from Martin Luther King Jr.; the jolting sensation of sitting in at a lunch counter, hearing the threats and slurs that young protesters would have; or the mirrorlike effect of one-on-one stories told by those who’ve suffered human rights violations—and the workers whose mission it is to triumph over them. The Rolls Down Like Water exhibit is superb, bearing the mark of its curator, award-winning playwright and film director George C. Wolfe. The center hosts one of the biggest celebrations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the world each December. And the building, itself a work of art reminiscent of folding hands, is steps away from parking and a brief walk to World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium.

A popular destination since the late 19th century, Piedmont Park is the perfect place to escape the chaos of the city. Tennis courts, a swimming pool, a popular dog park, and paths for walking, jogging, and rollerblading are part of the attraction, but many retreat to the park's great lawn for picnics with a smashing view of the Midtown skyline.

The old Sears, Roebuck & Co. building built in 1925 has transformed into Atlanta's hippest place to live, work, shop, and play, especially with the addition of a mini--amusement park on the roof. The historic property is adjacent to the BeltLine, with easy access to several neighborhoods. The 2-million-square-foot development—led by the same group who brought NYC’s Chelsea Market to life—is LEED Gold certified. Eco-friendliness aside, the real draw is the food hall. Walk through the crowds and among industrial-style spiral staircases and original concrete columns to devour coveted burgers from Holeman and Finch; Southern-style fried chicken at Hop's; and raw oysters from W. H. Stiles Fish Camp. The Dancing Goats Coffee Bar stays busy, especially when City Winery, a music venue and restaurant in its own right, is hosting events. The rooftop amusement park has all-ages favorites such as skeeball and minigolf.

The museum's quarterly exhibits chronicle the history of black people in America. Videos illustrate the story of Sweet Auburn, the name bestowed on Auburn Avenue by businessman John Wesley Dobbs, who fostered business development for African Americans on this street.

Make a day of visiting APEX and the Auburn Avenue Research Library, with lunch at the Sweet Auburn Market. All three are within a short walking distance.

Established by a group of photographers in the '70s as the arts co-op Nexus, Atlanta Contemporary is an arts center that exhibits edgy contemporary art. It has the feel of a sophisticated gallery, but the programming is approachable, and its annual Art Party is not to be missed.

An extension of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, this unit houses a noncirculating collection of about 60,000 books of African American interest. The archives contain art and artifacts, transcribed oral histories, and rare books, pamphlets, and periodicals. There are three galleries with rotating exhibits, and frequent special events, all of them free.

Crisscrossed by 70 miles of trails, this rec area contains different parcels of land that lie in 15 separate units spread along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Much of it has been protected from development.

In this colorful and joyfully noisy museum for children ages eight and younger, kids can build sandcastles, watch themselves perform on closed-circuit TV, operate a giant ball-moving machine, and get inside an imaginary waterfall (after donning raincoats, of course). Other exhibits rotate every few months.

Moved to the Atlanta History Center from a building in Grant Park (named for a New England–born Confederate colonel, not the U.S. president) the 49-foot-tall circular painting depicts the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, during which 90% of the city was destroyed. A team of expert European panorama artists completed the painting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1887; it was donated to the city of Atlanta in 1898. A brief overview is followed by a 12-minute film, then visitors can get a closer look at the foreground figures on the ground level of the exhibit and learn more about landmarks and how the 10,000-pound scene was created through displays and interactive touchscreens.

This earthy outpost of edgy-cool shops, restaurants, bars, and concert venues started growing, beginning in 1996, thanks to a group of proprietors with dreams much bigger than their bank accounts. Spurning the high rents of fancier parts of town, they set up businesses in this then-blighted but beautiful ruin of a neighborhood 4 miles southeast of Downtown. Soon artists and others came to soak up the creative atmosphere. East Atlanta, which is centered at Flat Shoals and Glenwood Avenues, just southeast of Moreland Avenue at Interstate 20, has had its ups and downs but has experienced a resurgence. Many of the majestic homes have been renovated, and what remains untouched romanticizes the area's gritty appeal.

One of the largest natural-history museums south of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., this museum offers more than 12,000 square feet of gallery space and an on-site 3-D theater. The Giants of the Mesozoic exhibit includes an exact replica of the world's largest dinosaur. The café, with an exquisite view of the forest, serves great food.

On the second Friday of each month, the museum hosts Fernbank After Dark, which includes live music and food and cocktails for purchase.

The museum, a learning and activity center with connections to the county school system, sits in the 65-acre Fernbank Forest and focuses on ecology, geology, and space exploration. In addition to the exhibit hall, there's a planetarium as well as an observatory, which is open Thursday and Friday night 9–10:30, weather permitting.

One of the neighborhood's best features is the Freedom Park Trail, a particularly pleasant stretch of the PATH Foundation's more-than-250-mile trail system in the metro area. It gives runners, bikers, and dog walkers a peaceful thoroughfare inside the 210-acre Freedom Park. The PATH is the largest public green space in a major metro area developed in the United States in the last century.

The capitol, a Renaissance-style edifice, was dedicated on July 4, 1889. The gold leaf on its dome was mined in nearby Dahlonega. Inside, the Georgia Capitol Museum houses exhibits on its history. On the grounds, state historical markers commemorate the 1864 Battle of Atlanta, which destroyed nearly the entire city. Statues memorialize a 19th-century Georgia governor and his wife (Joseph and Elizabeth Brown), a Confederate general (John B. Gordon), and a former senator (Richard B. Russell). Former governor and president Jimmy Carter is depicted with his sleeves rolled up, a man at work. Visit the website for tour information and group reservations.

The handsome Eastlake Victorian house that belonged to Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds is the focal point of this museum, as well as his fine collection of paintings and Victorian furnishings. The permanent and visiting exhibitions are devoted chiefly to works by African American artists, although art from anywhere in the African-influenced world can be a focus.

This museum's permanent collection includes 19th- and 20th-century American works, including many by African American artists. It also has some stellar examples of contemporary and outsider art—don't miss the works by the self-taught artist Rev. Howard Finster. The building itself is a work of art; the American Institute of Architects listed the sleek structure, designed by Richard Meier, among the 10 best works of American architecture of the 1980s. An expansion designed by Renzo Piano doubled the museum's size to 312,000 square feet with three new aluminum-paneled buildings. The roof features a system of 1,000 "light scoops" that filter light into the skyway galleries. The High often partners with other major museums, including the Louvre and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

This complex occupies the site where Union general William T. Sherman orchestrated the Battle of Atlanta (1864). The museum and archives detail the political career of former president Jimmy Carter. The adjacent Carter Center, which is not open to the public, focuses on conflict resolution and human-rights issues. Outside, the Japanese-style garden is a serene spot to unwind. Both Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter maintain offices here.

Housing a permanent collection of more than 17,000 objects, this excellent museum, designed by the architect Michael Graves, exhibits artifacts from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, the Americas, and Africa. European and American prints and drawings cover the Middle Ages through the 20th century. The bookshop sells rare art books, jewelry, and art-focused items for children.

Although the collection here includes artists from around the world, more than 300 Georgia artists are represented in the space, which is housed in an arts center. More than 1,000 paintings, sculptures, and other works are part of the permanent collection.

The only museum in the Southeast devoted exclusively to design mounts exhibits on fashion, graphics, architecture, furniture, and product design. The eco-friendly building is located just across the street from the High Museum of Art.