Planning Your Time

Because it would take too long to explore the city end-to-end in one fell swoop, consider discovering Atlanta one pocket at a time. In Downtown you can stroll through the Georgia Aquarium, tour the CNN Center, and meander through the World of Coca-Cola, then finish off the day with dinner and draughts at Marietta Street sports bar Stats or with a classy glass of wine at the nearby Luckie Food Lounge. Another good pocket includes three very walkable neighborhoods, all known for their canopies of trees, cute shops, and fun bistros: Virginia-Highland, Little Five Points, and Inman Park. From there you can drive to East Atlanta, one of the slower-transitioning in-town neighborhoods, and check out its casual bars, tattoo shops, vegetarian restaurants, and live music. Your third pocket should be Buckhead, and depending on when you go you will either see a neighborhood in metamorphosis or, if all goes according to plan, a shopper's mecca. Two constants there are Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza, great shopping spots in their own right.